Annual Report
Educational Resources
Mini Grants
Newsletters
Resource Lists
Sponsors
Talk to Us
Workshops
Growers on the Web
AITC Other States
Return to MAC Homepage
Partners in Massachusetts Agriculture Education
Mass. Department of Agricultural Resources
Massachusetts Farm Bureau Federation
Massachusetts 4-H Foundation
Massachusetts FFA
UMass Extension Landscape, Nursery and Forestry Program |
|
Mini Grant Winners 2009
First Cycle (April 2009)
- Grant 1: The Garden at Grow
The Grow School, a public school (K-12) that specializes in educating over 150 students diagnosed with emotional and behavioral disabilities, is requesting funds to help our Summer Program buy tools and supplies necessary to engage students in creating a school garden. Our community has been supportive of the garden but additional funds are needed for seeds, tools and start up equipment. “The Garden at Grow” will provide Students with the opportunity to participate in a “work practice” method of instruction to allow them to learn through a hands on environment the process of producing a crop. Elementary grades will start seeds in the Spring and Middle and High school students will plant and care for the garden throughout late spring and summer. Crops grown will be sold to the public at a student run farm stand.
Contact: Martha A. Burkett, 5th and 6th Grade Teacher, The Grow School,
Southern Worcester County Educational Collaborative, #185 Southbridge Road,
Dudley, MA 01571
Project Duration: Spring 2009 through Fall 2009
Mini-Grant Award: $400
- Grant 2 Why Local Is Better
Thank you for providing our agricultural program with the opportunity to apply for a mini-grant. The students and I have been working on developing an agricultural education program that will benefot th students, local communities and local farmers. We just completed our greenhouse renovation in February of 2009 and are anxious to maximize our efforts and efficiency with our proposed program.
Silver Lake Regional HS is a comprehensive high school that has a Career and Technical Education Department. The CTE department provides career and technical education in 7 different programs including Conservation Horticulture. Our Conservation Horticulture students are active members of the FFA and are also presently working partners with the Jones River Landing, the Kingston Conservation Commission and the Kingston Agricultural Commission. The objective of the program is to bring awareness to the local community about the many benefits to purchasing locally grown foods.
Contact: Dawn Fornari, Conservation Horticulture Program, Silver Lake Regional High School,
260 Pembroke Street Kingston, MA 02364
Project Duration: Spring 2009.
Mini-Grant Award: $450
- Grant 3 Learning, Giving, and Agricultural Literacy at Kettle Pond Farm
Farm Education occurs in many ways. A new direction for outreach and education at Kettle Pond Farm this year is an integrated hands-on, experiential learning and sustainable agricultural literacy development programs. A model-scale plot garden at Kettle Pond Farm is the location wherein participants from the school and community share in the experience of organic farming, learning and working, and also giving the produce to families in need of food assistance. In addition, a list of educational books about agriculture was compiled by Roger Williams University students as an Honors program project, from which Angela will choose books to order to be used in the Berkley community School classroom and also at Kettle Pond Farm.
Contact: Angela Possinger, 1 42nd Street Berkley, MA 02779
Project Duration: Spring through fall 2009l
Mini-Grant Award: $250
- Grant 1 A. D. Makepeace Cranberry Tour Program
The A. D. Makepeace Cranberry Bog Tour begins in the classroom with structured activities that support science, maths and language arts. Upon our arrival in October at Makepeace Cranberry Company, Tihonet Road, Wareham, a guide will greet us and have a discussion. Next, the group will be transported via our buses to the cranberry bog area. During the tour, the guide will show the group examples of an existing bog currently in production, and a bog being harvested, examples of the process of renovating old bogs as well as building new bogs. Our guide will also discuss the stages of the cranberry growing process, the two methods of harvesting and give us some insight on being a cranberry farmer.
Contact: Sherri Williams Minot Forest Elementary School 63 Minot Avenue Wareham, MA 02571
Project Duration: Fall 2009.
Mini-Grant Award: $495
- Grant 2 Making Peach Jam Using Scientific Tools and Principals
A grant for this coming school year from the Southborough Education Foundation will permit me to make jam with my classes. That grant covers the cost of purchasing canning equipment, half pint canning jars and other miscellaneous equipment (extra knives, cutting boards, etc.) However, since taking the workshop over the summer “Canning and Preserving of Locally Grown Foods” at the Warren Farm and Sugarhouse with Janice Wentworth, I would like to make this class more comprehensive and scientific, just as Janice taught us. Janice explained the importance of having fruit that is the correct Ph., a fruit and sugar solution that is the correct temperature and a fruit syrup that is the correct sugar concentration. Therefore I would like to purchase the following equipment to accomplish those tasks: Long stemmed canning thermometer; Ph meter and Refractometer.
As part of my final project for the graduate course taken with MAC and Fitchburg State College, I created a unit called Seasonal Recipes Using Local Foods. A class on making peach jam is one of the three classes in the unit. The unit would be about one week long.
Contact: Susan Halpin, Algonquin Regional High School, 79 Bartlett Street Northborough, MA 01532
Project Duration: September 2009 into future years.
Mini-Grant Award: $360
For more information about Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom or our programs:
Click here to send us a message or add a name to our mailing list
Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom
P.O. Box 345
Seekonk, MA 02771
(508) 336-4426 Fax: (508) 336-0682
Return to Mini-Grant Home Page
www.aginclassroom.org
|