EDUC 450B Inquiry class in the Orchard Garden October 2017

Our EDUC 450B spent four hours in class in the Orchard Garden on a beautiful day in October. We did mathematics in the garden:

• drawing human-made and living, growing things in the garden with an eye to lines and angles (guess which kinds of things tended to have straight lines and right angles, and which didn't!)
• experiencing mathematical patterning by dancing braid into being (with a 'line hey' with ribbons)
• harvesting vegetables and herbs in the garden.

Completing the installation of Hyperboloid Gate #2

On a rainy weekend in October, a group of hard-working Orchard Garden team members muddily but triumphantly completed and installed the second Hyperboloid Gate in the UBC Orchard Garden, in time for our Dark Garden Arts celebration.

The gate was designed by mathematical sculptor and computer science professor George Hart from Stoney Brook University. George was at UBC in 2007 and again in 2014 as a mathematical artist in residence, and in 2014, was the keynote speaker for the PME (Psychology of Mathematics Education) conference at UBC. Hyperboloid Gate #1 was built in the Orchard Garden by George, PME conference participants and members of the Orchard Garden team. George documented the process and the mathematics behind his design in this short film made for the Simons Foundation.

The gate was built by elementary and middle years teacher candidates and garden team members in June 2016, but wasn't completely tied off and installed till this year.

Many thanks to John, Jo, Kwesi, Phil, Sophia (Danish grad student from the Vancouver Tool Library), and me (Susan) for lots of tying off, hoisting, digging, and tipping of the new gate into its spot in the garden. It's beautiful, and it was fun doing lots of wet and muddy work together with such a great result.

Orchard Garden 2017-18 Workshop #1, October 14 2017

Our first workshop of the year was a great way to start the year. John, Jo, Myron, Tathali and Sam led activities introducing the importance of school gardens, both here and internationally, and offering hands-on experiences in the garden.

Here is a link to the handout from this workshop.

World Environmental Education Conferences symposium day at the Cultivating Learning Network, UBC

On September 11, 2017, we welcomed 40 delegates from all over the world, along with 30 UBC teacher candidates and student, staff and faculty members of our organizing teams, to the Cultivating Learning Network at UBC for a beautiful day of off-site Community Engagement Day conference papers, symposia and hands-on activities around environmental education.

The morning was spent at Intergenerational Landed Learning at the UBC Farm Children's Garden and surrounding forest, with a lunch included edible flowers and greens we had harvested at the Children's Garden.

The afternoon activities were held at the UBC Orchard Garden, including interactive conference symposium presentations and arts-based environmental education activities.

The weather was lovely and the day was full of moving, thought-provoking, delicious, fragrant, poetic and community-building experiences -- a highlight of a very interesting international conference

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It's been a busy six months!

...And it's definitely time to catch up our Orchard Garden blog!

From September 2017 to March 2018, here are some of the highlights at the UBC Orchard Garden:

Sept. 9-15: World Environmental Education Conference (WEEC), with a full conference day held at the Orchard Garden and Landed Learning at the Farm.

Presentations to UBC teacher candidates on CFEs (three-week intensive community field experiences following their 10-week school practicum) , workshops and volunteering at the Orchard Garden.

October - March: The first 5 of 8 Orchard Garden workshops

#1 Oct. 14
#2 Nov. 25
#3 Jan. 13
#4 Feb. 3
#5 Mar. 10

(Here are the other three workshop dates:

#6 Apr. 14
#7 May 12
#8 June 30)

October: EDUC450B class in the Orchard Garden
Completed work on Hyperboloid Gate #2
Dark Garden Arts (Hallowe'en, Day of the Dead)

September - December: Collaboration with SFU School of Interactive Arts and Technology undergraduate student design team

November: Grant writing sessions

Launching the new Cultivating Learning Network website

December: Planning for upcoming ECE Summer Institute in the Orchard Garden

January: Orientation meeting with CFE students

February: Two workshops with the Tell-3C elementary cohort

Upcoming:

Secondary CFE: April 23-May 12

Elementary/Middle CFE: June 11-30

Summer Solstice Celebration: Thursday June 28

Summer Institute in Early Childhood Education: July 9-14