Terra Nova

Terra Nova is a school of sustainable agriculture, off campus in portland. A School of science (chemistry and biology), cooking, construction (somewhat), and farming!

I have really enjoyed my time in Terra Nova learning the connection between science and nature. Being able to create fun projects and having the opportunity to make new friends outside of my high school. Due to Terra Nova being open to all high school of the beaverton school district.

Terra Nova has helped me have a clear view on what I want to pursue after high school which is Environmental science. What mostly motivated me was Terra Nova and learning so much other than just the elements but being able to learn the effects of natural nature such as the Missoula floods and how peaceful it is to work out in the environment such as when I helped in the farm with planting and weeding

Terra Nova Assignments and Projects

Environmental DNA

We were given an assignment to work on a project selecting anything based on what we learned in class and connecting it with our skills and creativity. For this project I picked EDNA, DNA that can be traced from sea animals based on their dead skin and connected it with my hobby of crochet. This was a really fun project and made me realize how fun it can be to create a project for school.

Co-Evolution

In this project I researched the co-evolution between bees and flowers and how much they rely on each other to grow. In this project I added a crocheted bee and flower but this image was taken before I even added the bee and flower.

Aquaponics

For this project we had to work in a group of 4 to create an aquaponics system. A system including plants and fish where the system would bring the fish poop from the tank to the plants, the poop being used as fertilizer so the plants can grow. An aquaponics can be beneficial for everyone a system where you can grow plants indoors without using dirt but a substitution.

This was a stressful project due to designing it and measuring at least 3 times throughout the process. While our aquaponics did work, all our fishes started to die because we found out later on that we didn't cover the motor causing all the fish to be sucked up.

My Garden Bed

We were all given an opportunity to own a small portion of dirt/garden where we can plant anything we want! (well the plants that can grow in the season) I planted 3 snap peas, 4 green onion, 3 carrots, 3 radish, 3 beets, 6 cilantros, 2 lettuce, 2 potatoes, 1 cabbage, 8 spinach, and 2 broccoli.

At the end of May or start of June we had a final cooking grade where we get to use the plants we grew to cook something. We didn't have to use all the plant so I just used lots of spinach to make pupusas! A hispanic delicacy made with corn flour, lots of cheese, and lots of spinach. I definetly recommend that you should try or even make pupusas!

Summer Crew Job

Terra Nova gives out many opportunities including a job!

Not only does Terra Nova give a great impact on students but it gives them an opportunity to gain work experience while in school or in the summer crew job. If you have attended Terra Nova you are accepted to be interviewed for the job but not all may be accepted. The summer crew job is available in the end of June and the start of August, sustaining of two sessions and in each session is a work time of 4 weeks starting on monday and ending on thursday.

I honestly loved working there, getting to be in a great community where we all put our great efforts and never give up. We were also given the opportunity to bring the harvested plants with us to home. And in every thursday we would have group meals where we split into two groups, one stays out and farms while the other group gets to cook delicious meals.

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