FOOD

Beyond a stack of hay bales, high school students in a tiny Indiana town stroll down a grassy slope to reach their newest classroom: a fenced-in field of cud-chewing cattle. (New York Times)

Use our resources to learn more about classroom “green scenes.”

Discussion Ideas

• Compare the agricultural program described in the New York Times article (in Hagerstown, Indiana) with the program described in our article “Green Scene” (in Newark, New Jersey). What do the programs have in common? How do they differ? What parts of the programs could be shared with the other school? Which parts of the programs could not be shared with the other school?
  • Similarities
    • Both programs use agriculture as part of mainstream school curricula, and harvest food for their classrooms or cafeteria.
    • Both programs take place outside traditional learning environments (classrooms).
    • Both programs claim to serve at-risk or disadvantaged students.
  • Differences
    • The Hagerstown program serves traditional public schools, while St. Philip’s Academy is a charter school.
    • The Hagerstown program serves students in a rural community, while St. Philip’s Academy serves an urban population.
    • The Hagerstown program focuses on livestock, while the program at St. Philip’s Academy focuses on growing vegetables and other plants.
  • Shared Features
    • The Hagerstown program could feature the gardening aspects practiced by the St. Philip’s program, if it already isn’t.
    • The St. Philip’s program could expand the way their program is taught to include economics, the way the Hagerstown program has.
  • Unshared Features
    • St. Philip’s is in a huge urban area—Newark, New Jersey—and could probably not have a herd of cattle on school grounds!
    • The St. Philip’s program (EcoSPACES) focuses on sustainability solutions in urban areas—not directly relevant to issues in Hagerstown.

• The NYT article focuses on the agricultural and economic lessons of the livestock program, while our “Green Scene” article details the nutrition and food-science aspects of the gardening program. What other academic disciplines could benefit from agricultural programs like those in Hagerstown or Newark?
  • The programs could focus on environmental science, meteorology, civics, engineering, history or social studies, genetics, literature, fabrication or metalworking, ecology, fashion, GEOGRAPHY, and just about anything else you can think of.

Thanks to eagle-eyed geographer Allie for the heads-up on this great current-event connection!