Morris Dancing at the UBC Orchard Garden

Arriving at ten in the morning, our group of six education students prepared to experience the English tradition known as Morris dancing. These dances are traditionally performed during periods of time where the seasons changed, and we were introduced to the dances in preparation for the May 1st celebration. In preparation for our dancing, we donned traditional garments, such as bells, ribbons, and colorful hats. Each of these items served to make the dance more vibrant and energetic, with bold colors complementing the equally bold movements of the dance.

The group of Morris dancers joined us soon after we were clothed in the vibrant cloth. Breaking into three groups of three, we were lead through the dance "Tinner's Rabbit" by the pair of fantastic accordion players in our midst. This dance revolved around participants skipping to the beat in circles, interweaving with each other, and performing what is called the stick chorus by beating their sticks against each other's in rhythmic intervals. The dance was lively, and the song that we learned following the dance was equally entertaining.

The implications of this event to our educational practices are many. First, the tradition known as Morris dancing is a perfect way to bridge the gap between outdoor education and history courses or social studies. Aside from being fun to perform, the respectful approach to learning about historical traditions is a skill that many students never have a chance to practice, as exposure to traditions outside of one's own in the traditional school system tends to be low. Allowing children to come to their own conclusions about different traditions by participating in them themselves is a valuable learning experience, and one that most students will never forget.

The second implication is that the act of performing a task can lead to further growth of students. For math specifically, Morris dancing combines geometrical shapes with concepts of rhythm, beat, and measure, bringing math, music, and English together in a way not commonly seen. The interdisciplinary discussions that arise from practicing these traditional dances may allow students to see the interactions between their different subjects in day-to-day life, even back in the fifteenth century. Helping students think of learning as a process, furthered by the acquisition of knowledge in any realm of study, may allow them to become more well-rounded students. Overall, the Morris dancing was incredibly enjoyable, and I would recommend that everyone take time to attempt it at least once.

So many geese. They seemed to enjoy the music.

Adorning the students with colorful hats.

CFE students, ready to learn the "Tinner's Rabbit"

The Homma Elementary School Learning Garden

Today was an exciting day! We visited the Learning Gardens at Homma Elementary
School, and got to see the power of the outdoors in action. Every hour or so, a
new group of students would come in, ready to weed , water, and eat the plants
they have grown. They were given the choice of various activities including
painting fairy houses, mapping out the garden and completing a puzzle. It was
clear the students were comfortable and experienced in the Garden. Most of them
had been learning in the Garden since Kindergarten, and they spend 2 hours a week
out there. The students could be seen running from across the school yard ready to
cross the street into the Garden. Despite all the incredible activities that the students

participated in, it was clear the main objective of the Garden was to let kids be kids.

All throughout the day, the students engaged in “Risky Play”. There was very minimum

intervention from adults as students were able to negotiate, problem solve,

self regulate and develop their social emotional learning on their own. As mentioned
by the Garden coordinator Megan, students are given the platform to learn, and the
best way to learn is from your mistakes. Students are building forts, playing in the mud
kitchen, using hammers and nails, and even playing with a makeshift catapult. The
purpose of all of this is to allow kids to explore their environment and learn from one
another away in a way that is not possible in a regular classroom. In a time when children
rarely go outside and do not know how to actually play, this is a welcomed change. Not
only are the students getting fresh air, but they are learning valuable life skills.

Today was evidence enough that using the outdoors as a space for learning has
multiple beneficial outcomes. Tying in any sort of curriculum with the Garden is not
as difficult as it may seem, and it leaves a more lasting impression on the students.
Simple activities such as reading poetry or stories is an elevated experience outside.
Learning about plants and animals is much more interesting when you can actually
see the plants and animals. Math has a practical use in the Garden, as opposed to
punching numbers in a calculator. The Homma Learning Garden proved all these
things are possible, as well as allowing kids to learn vital skills that more often than not,
are neglected in a classroom.

Welcome to the Garden!

Students enjoying some fresh kale 

Students picking and eating some radishes 

Students engaging in "risky play" 

Students cooking in the mud kitchen 

Student building a fort

Day 2

I have always been knowing a little in biological. Common sense questions like pineapples are growing in the tree or on the ground always confuse me. Participating in the activities at Orchard Garden enables me to learn a lot about plants in bilingual language. Most of the times, feeling like a child with curiosity is simple and pure happiness.

Lupen （Green Leaves in the middle)

Fennel 茴香 

包饺子超级好吃的，

Deadnettle 枯荨麻

Dandeline 蒲公英

叶子可以吃，清热降火，花朵可以泡茶

Sun, Music and learning TC's

Weeds or Not？ 

Weed is a subject word. What we don't want to grow, called a weed. In the Chinese medicine book, "本草纲目"， almost all plants have their medical usage. 

Body Measurement: 

The worksheet we are given is a great guideline for math class activities, especially when introducing the imperial and metric system, as well as other measurement systems.  

I also found it could be developed as a data Analysis activity for varies of grades. Eg: G8 ( Center, median, mean, mode), G10(linear relationships), or in Statistics 

Day 4: April 62th - Bee’s Wax and Lemon Balm

It is officially the end of our first week at the orchard garden, and today we continued with our gardening and learning. We started the day by learning to make Bee’s Wax reusable food wraps. This is a breathable, compostable, natural and reusable alternative to cling wrap or even plastic storage bags. Shortly after learning how to make these we had 8 guests and were able to share our new knowledge with them by helping them create their own wraps. Everyone left with a great new product to try at home.

Ironing wax onto cotton

The finished Bees Wax Wrap

Next we checked back in on the garden. It is looking better and better every day. For todays work we decided to focuse on one area to in order to see a bigger difference by the end of the day. We decided to freshen up the area towards the road so that is would look more beautiful for everyone that walks by. We removed old plants, weeded and choice to make a new pathway. In order to create this pathway we needed to move a lot of lemon balm. It smelt so great while we did this. Soon where we wanted our path to go was ready. We placed a board for one walkway and used mulch to create a second. It is looking great and all cleaned up and ready for growing season. Of course we also watered all our beautiful plants as well!

  

Working hard to move lemon balm and creat a new path

The garden is growing around us, giving us new skills, ideas and inspiration. Today we learned a new project to bring into schools and while chatting we were able to connect the idea of this food wrapping to multiple subjects. This activity connected the garden to the kitchen in a new way for me. The wax was from bees that pollinated a garden, the food wraps come back to my kitchen saving food from gardens and when they wearout they can go back to the earth as composted. The garden, fresh air and hard work has been good for me (and I am sure my colleagues).Some of the unexpected benefits of this experience have been good feeling skin, great sleep, movement, being out from behind a desk, mental clarity and bring home a new skill. 

The garden at the end of the day

Day 3: 6 Teacher Candidates, Two Poets, an Environmental Educator, and a Marine Biologist Walk Across a Beach...

We began our day by taking a tour of one of two Seed Lending Libraries on campus here at UBC. Located behind the librarian's counter in the Education Library in the Scarfe building, the Seed Library is a place where people can take and leave seeds for others to plant. What a great initiative to build a sense of community in our lives! After borrowing some flower and herb seeds, we returned to our guerrilla garden to plant (don't tell campus police).

Seed Library in the Education Library

Vegetable seeds from the Seed Library 

After planting, we used a giant sundial made by two students in the Faculty of Education to tell the time. After positioning the sundial pointing north, we were able to use our shadows to tell the time. We then took part in some embodied mathematics, using our bodies to measure the elevation of the sun. We found that when stacking our fists from a 90˚ origin, each fist was roughly equal to 9˚. How cool?! Embodied mathematics is a fantastic way to root mathematical ideas into something real and practical and to see where these ideas really come from.

 Sundial made by Nat Kozak and Cryss Phellan

 Measuring the angle of elevation of the sun

We then met up with Hart Banack, outdoor educator, who lead us and a few others including two poets, a physicists, and a marine botanist, on a walk to and along Wreck Beach. Stopping along the way, we talked about our surroundings and how we so often take what is around us for granted. As educators, we have a tremendous opportunity to use our diverse environment to act as co-teachers to build further connections to what we are all learning. It was amazing being able to connect to others who have such a diverse background. Even though we are all from different faculties and different places of the world, the one thing we all have in common is a connection to the world, and what a waste it would be if we neglected it. 

 Walking down the steps to Wreck Beach

A windy day on the beach

CFE Week 1 Day 2 - Body Measurement and Guerilla Gardening

For the second day of our UBC Orchard Garden CFE we learned about body measurement. We discussed the metric and imperial systems, some of the roots of the imperial and metric measurements (French Revolution!), what the imperial measurements mean, and how to estimate imperial distances with our bodies. During our discussions on this beautiful sunny day we saw eagles, squirrels, a robin, and listened to chickadees and a well-played accordion (Thanks Susan!). Susan, our coordinator, also told us the names of some of the plants in the garden and pointed out the poisonous ones to avoid eating.

Anoop and Riley measuring "fathoms"  

Susan playing accordion

We then visited a small plot outside the Neville Scarfe building which we raked and hoed for some guerilla gardening. We took seeds of aromatic herbs and beautiful flowers to plant, following the planting instructions as closely as we could using body measurement strategies. Hopefully we will get to see some of those seeds take root and grow during our upcoming semester at Scarfe.

A small selection of the seeds we could choose from

Evelyn

Evelyn and Anoop plant seeds outside Neville Scarfe

We finished the day by meeting Emily who lead us in some weeding, watering, and maintenance of the garden. Having little gardening experience, I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun it can be getting your hands dirty in the soil. It’s also a great way to get to know the people you’re working with, as no one is on their phone or particularly distracted by anything. Talking and connecting becomes as natural as a leaf growing outward towards the sunlight.

Through the hyperboloid with Aman

Bright Beginnings

The day began with clouds covering the sky, hinting at potential rain. Our group of eight met to discuss our day, beginning with introductions and a general outline of the UBC Orchard Garden community field experience. Safety procedures were discussed for twenty minutes, and with that we jumped right into our new practicum.

Splintering into smaller groups, we began by discussing the potential benefits and limitations of garden learning in an educational setting. Some of the benefits discussed were that participants could learn applicable skills, such as working on large-scale projects with a team, identification of different plants, and managerial and organizational skills. Additionally, we also discussed how time spent working on projects in community gardens could foster empathy and patience in participants, two traits that are usually difficult to develop in more typical educational settings. Our discussions then delved into various limitations that might affect development of student gardens, such as administrative support, cost, and logistical constraints such as who provides care for the gardens during periods of time where schools are not in session. The time passed quickly during this process, and by the time our groups were finished discussing, the sun began to peek through the clouds.

Our reflective practices were next. We spent individual time in a favorite garden spot, using our senses to glean what information we could about our chosen space. Haikus were written by each of us, and everyone seemed happy with them! But by the end of this period, the sun had now emerged fully, and we began our gardening work in earnest. With our instructor leading the way, we weeded several beds in the garden, working until every weed was torn from the ground. But we didn’t stop there. In two of the beds we planted little squash seedlings, in a larger bed we planted eleven larger tomato plants, and in individual pots we planted both basil and lemon balm seeds. I think that we may have a lot of growth to observe over the coming weeks!

I personally found this experience incredibly enjoyable. The pace of garden life is magnificently laid back; you receive one task, and work on it until completed. There are no stressors due to artificial time constraints, as the only time constraints that exist are those that are per-defined by nature. This makes the process incredibly rewarding, as everything I learned from my brief exposure to the gardening process feels important and easy to apply. I am excited to see the growth that occurs in these plants, and welcome the opportunity to develop a green thumb over the next few weeks. Let the three weeks of sunshine and a light breeze commence!

Weeding the beds for the squash

Weeding the beds for the tomatoes

The planted tomato seedlings

The planted squash seedlings