"Edible Schoolyard" and "A Night in the Global Village"

Edible Schoolyard is an outdoor classroom located at Martin Luther King Junior Middle School in Berkeley, CA. Students grow their own food and prepare meals in their own kitchen at school. I've worked with outdoor classrooms and they're a FUN hands-on creative project. Students you wouldn't think would be interested are actually the one's who really get involved! Kids like to "make stuff" . . . what better way than for them to actually see that THEY can grow something and then prepare a meal!

I have to be biased . . . MOBILE CO'S DOING THIS ALREADY! Booker T. Washington Middle School already had a "home economics" course, but was recently awarded grant funding for a greenhouse as an outdoor classroom. Collier Elem, Allentown Elem, Baker High, and Bryant CTC (to name a few) also have outdoor classrooms.

If I were a teacher today, I'd definitely incorporate this hands-on concept! Plus, students develop PRIDE in what THEY'RE doing!

A Night in the Global Village: Role Playing Life in Poverty is a program in Perryville, Arkansas. Students spend the night at a camp with very little resources to get them through the night. They experience what it's like if they were poverty-stricken or a refugee. On top of that, some students were given an (imaginary) ailment such as the loss of a hand or being pregnant. Kids have to build a fire and cook their food...with no McDonald's ANYWHERE!

"Edible Schoolyard" and "A Night in the Global Village" are both great examples of hands-on programs. Kids today are basically spoiled rotten! They take so many things for granted! They think clothes comes from the mall and food comes from a restaurant. These programs enlighten them first-hand about real life!