Embedded Files
Sustainable Agriculture Elective (per 7 & 8)
Sustainable Agriculture students have been taking care of the chicks as they have been growing up. The chicks will join the rest of the flock when they get bigger, and later on, they will be joined by more chicks as we have sent fertile eggs to two a preschool and an elementary school for the students to experience the hatching! Then the chicks will come back to us to grow up!
Students helped plant the seeds that are germinating and currently being planted out in the field and garden boxes. Some will also be potted to sell at the Farmer’s Market.
The newest additions to the farm are the baby lambs, Delores and Myrtle. Since Delores and Myrtle are both female lambs, they will be staying at the farm to become a part of the Grove Sheep Flock. Students will help raise them and work to train them!
AAES (Applied Agriculture and Environmental Science)
Students woke up early and arrived at 6 AM to help vendors set up at the Craft Fair on Saturday. They ended up setting up around 100 spaces! It was a great event and the students were incredibly helpful in the setup.
Students are busy halter training the animals on the farm. This is necessary for being able to effectively manage the herd that stays at the school as well as for training the animals that will be going to the San Bernardino County Fair later in the year.
Students volunteered to work with AAES for two days at the end of October. During both days, we got a lot done! We prepped the goat pens in the barn for the animals and moved a bunch of straw bales to a better place than before. We planted the field with five rows of lettuce and also moved the goats to the barn. The goats are just about ready for kidding!
Environmental Club
On Friday, April 15th, from 6:00-8:00 PM, Environmental Club hosted their 5th Annual Environmental Symposium! The event was held in the Barton School House, and there were many fun activities including a presentation with island conservationist Sally Esposito, stone-fired pizza from Z Pizzaiolo, and a live musical performance by Mak Karper. The community viewed posters, signed petitions, created buttons as a craft, and supported local businesses as well as the AAES club. The Environmental Club was very excited for this event to take place, and it was a major success with around 80 viewers! Thank you to everyone who showed up to the event and for supporting the Environmental Club!
Environmental Club has been working hard to clean up the area around the future owl water feature at the farm campus. Currently, the area is composed of a cement structure that can hold water that is surrounded by bits of broken concrete. They plan on fixing up the structure, planting greenery around the area, and possibly putting in a bench for science classes to enjoy the area in the future. They are also looking into building a fence around the area with a gate for access. This is all for the sake of welcoming owls onto the farm campus!
To accompany the owl nests that have been put up in the hopes of attracting some of our nocturnal friends, the Environmental Club is working on creating a water feature for the birds to drink out of. Students are researching supplies and creating designs in class. Their goal is to make a fenced-in water feature area with benches that would allow students to come and observe the area. They also want to put native plants that attract butterflies and other pollinators to help the surrounding species flourish. The picture below shows the area that is going to be transformed. This is a long-time project, so look out for an update in the future!
STEM Elective (per 7 & 8)
Students were challenged to improve wind turbine designs to help reduce the deadly impact on birds and bats in the areas where turbines are placed. They carried out research to discover the habits of the bird and bat species, how the turbines affect them, and helped diminish the negative impacts. The second challenge project was to build the most effective catapult capable of knocking down soda can “castle walls.” It proved to be difficult to build a catapult that was proficient in both accuracy and precision.
Students have been very creative in their endeavors to meet the STEM challenges. Our last challenge required students to plan and build a prototype of a prosthetic hand. They were challenged with being able to pick up different types of objects that varied in shape, size, and weight. Our current project consists of engineering improvements to current wind turbine technologies in order to reduce harm to wildlife, especially the mortality rates of birds and bats. Our next projects will focus on catapults and speed control in a maze.
The start of the 3rd quarter has come around with another round of STEM for the 7th & 8th periods. Our first project was creating a cantilever. Students had a great time with the construction and testing load-bearing on their builds. Started this week is "All Hands on Deck" where students will be challenged to build an artificial hand that will need to pick up different types of objects.
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