What We Are Reading

Children's book author Land Wilson and illustrator Sue Cornelison have teamed up to bring us a delightful story about a girl named Sofia who befriends the Moon and sets off on dreamy adventure to visit her friend.  Seeing our planet from the Moon’s point of view she is inspired to do whatever she can to protect the Earth and to encourage others to do the same.

Making Bee Candy Boards for The Apiary

Fertilizer Experiments in the Upper School

AP Environmental Science students engaged in an experimental design activity in the Academic Courtyard.  Each group of 3-4 students was allotted a small garden plot and asked to design an experiment to test a hypothesis that related to growth of fall crops such as lettuce, kale, and spinach.  Variables tested in different groups included type of soil (sandy, clayey, or good compost); relative density of seed planting; presence or absence of fertilizer; and presence or absence of mulch on soil.  None of the results were conclusive, but that is OK as the instructors learned a fair bit about how to guide students in experimental design next time around.  During the fall months, students were enthusiastically watering plants in their free periods, and all enjoyed the planting, harvesting, and data collection activities.  In addition, the proximity of the work space to the classroom allowed daily inspection of progress from the classroom windows. 

What We Are Watching

From farmer to biodiversity expert, Cary Fowler, helps to manage the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in the Arctic Circle. Some call this site The Doomsday Vault, due to the fact that it is "nothing less than a backup of the world's biological diversity in a horticultural world fast becoming homogenous in the wake of a flood of genetically identical GMOs." In this TED talk he shares with us critical information about how biodiversity can save agriculture in a warming world.

Lower School Explorers Club

In the fall 14 students from GA's 4th and 5th grade Explorers Club, traveled to the Wissahickon gorge to study geology and climb on the rocks.  At the Andorra Nature Center, also in the gorge, children saw the oldest European Beech tree and climbed on it.  They had a full day,  looking for salamanders under rotten logs, hiking along the Green Ribbon trail, from GA to the Militia Hill State Park, and swinging on vines along the Wissahickon.  The Explorers club has also traveled  to Ruston Woods in Newton Square to learn about Saw-whet Owl research and the Briar Bush Nature Center in Abington.  Craig Newberger, faculty sponsor of the club notes that students will have more opportunities for exploring local natural resources in the spring term.

What We Are Reading

In a powerful follow up to his national best seller "Last Child in The Woods", Richard Louv urges readers to change their vision of the future suggesting we reconceive environmentalism and sustainability, they will evolve into a movement that touches all of society. Louv offers renewed optimism while challenging us to rethink the way we live.

Middle School Students Go Cat-tailing (and more)

This year some of the 6^th grade service projects focused on the outdoor spaces on campus.  Excited about spending the day in the Preserve some students had the fun of Cat-tailing (cutting and piling dead cattails from the preserve  and piled in the woods to decompose) a process designed to curtail the monoculture and make access to the ponds.  The tightly compacted soil around the birch trees in the preserve was aerated with kid power and hand rakes with some students hauling leaf detritus in paper bags to the woods to decompose.  Other students planted flowers outside the dining hall and acorns were collected around the quad for Project Acorn, Middle School Green Ambassadors project where  oak trees are grown from felled acorns on campus to give to each senior at graduation as a remembrance of their roots here at GA.