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Growing the Urban Farmer To Bring Organic Agriculture Home
Jessie Banhazl, Massachusetts
Video Synopsis:
Jessie Banhazl is co-founder of Green City Growers in Boston, Massachusetts. Watch this interview to see how one company is changing the way people in the greater Boston area are eating by teaching them to grow their own food. You'll see how Jessie and her business partner, with creativity and passion, have built a business that helps people and restaurants become more self sufficient, for less than organic food costs at the grocery store. Be inspired by what a passion for good food and some hard work can do to move a community, a city, a state and ultimately the country forward.
Suggested for: Traditional schools, alternative programs, youth groups, community centers
Suggested grade use: K-12
Quick Start
Pre-video Discussion points: Time: 10 min21st Century skills used: LIS-CT, LIS-CI, CS-CL, CS-EL
- How would you describe community?
- Who is part of your community?
- Does your community have anything to do with the environment?
- How do you describe environment? Do you think growing a vegetable garden is part of caring for the environment? What other types of agriculture are there? Do you think it is your responsibility to do anything about it?
- What do you know about Massachusetts, what about Boston? Is Boston, similar to your city or very different?
- What do you think a city dweller should be responsible for as far as the environment and agriculture are concerned?
Video Links: Please scroll down the page to view the video here, or check out the link below.
http://www.50in52journey.com/states/Massachusetts3.asp Time: 9:16 min
Post-video Discussion points: Time: 20 min +
21st Century skills: LIS-CT, LIS-CI
- What do you think about Jessie’s work?
- What do you think about growing a garden when you don’t have any land?
- Do you think you would have come up with the same project as Jessie?
- What would you have done differently?
- What problems do you feel that Jessie’s team are solving?
- Would you consider their actions Kind actions? Why/Why not?
- What is Jessie’s community, who is in it?
Action: Time: 40 min 21st Century Skills: CS-CL, LIS-CT, LIS-CI,
- Define as a group what your community is and who is in it
- Explore things that could be improved in your community.
- Tip, this is accomplished best as a brainstorming session. One suggested method: Give each student a post-it-note pad and a pen. Depending on attention span provide 1-5 minutes for the students to write one idea on each sheet, not fleshed out, just concept. Encourage student to write as many ideas as come into their head. At 5 minutes, or when they stop writing, collect all of the notes and begin grouping them by sticking them on the wall. Create a separate line for each similar idea/category/theme. Have the group determine which line has the most suggestions and choose that as the area your group will explore to provide a solution.
- After agreement has been reached discuss an activity/program/project the students can create to work on that problem.
- Develop groups to tackle the different sections that need to be researched, designed, developed. Be sure to utilize all possible new media tools in the project design as appropriate.
Create Kindness based community action: 40 min 21st Century Skills: LCS, LIS-CT, LIS-CI, IMT-ML, IMT-T
- Breakout into groups to do the groundwork for the class chosen activity.
ACTIVITY: Time determined by class
Post-activity: Time: 60 min 21st Century Skills: LCS, IMT
- Be sure to capture a video or photographs of the students in action and have the students develop a blog entry utilizing video and photos to report their results and how the project made them feel. Submit to RAK!
Life lessons explored:
- Agriculture in the city
- Food security
- Life choices
- Personal drive
- Personal passion
- Connection to the earth
Community lessons explored:
- Determining a need
- Building from the ground up
- Finding support
- Building a team
- Service to others
Kindness lessons explored:
- Care for the environment
- Doing over and above the expected for another
- Sharing knowledge and skills with all in your community
21st Century Skills Explored:
Life and Career Skills (LCS)
- Initiative and Self Direction - Manage goals and time
- Social and Cross-Cultural skills - work effectively in diverse teams, work w/people in a range of social and cultural backgrounds
- Productivity and Accountability, manage projects, produce results
- Leadership and Responsibility - guide and lead others, be responsible to others
Learning and Innovation Skills (LIS)
- Critical thinking (LIS - CT)
- Systems thinking - analyze how each part interacts to create the outcome
- Make judgments through analysis, interpretation, reflection
- problem solving
- Creativity and Innovation (LIS - CI)
- use a wide range of ideas
- create new ideas
- be open and responsive to new ideas
- understand the real world limits of adopting new ideas
Information, Media and Technology Skills (IMT)
- Media Literacy (IMT - ML)
- Create media products using appropriate tools and effectively communicate to a diverse audience
- Technology (IMT - T)
- Use technology as a tool to research, organize, communicate
Core Subjects and 21st Century Themes (CS)
- Civic literacy (CS - CL)
- Civic engagement as defined "Individual and collective action designed to identify and address issues of public concern." "Civic engagement", American Psychological Association. Retrieved 11/26/07
- Environmental Literacy (CS - EL)
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the environment and the circumstances and conditions affecting it, particularly as relates to air, climate, land, food, energy, water and ecosystems
- Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of society’s impact on the natural world (e.g., population growth, population development, resource consumption rate, etc.)
- Investigate and analyze environmental issues, and make accurate conclusions about effective solutions
- Take individual and collective action towards addressing environmental challenges (e.g., participating in global actions, designing solutions that inspire action on environmental issues)
Suggested Materials:
- Video projection
- Internet
- Basic video editing software
- flip cameras or other basic video camera
- Additional materials as required by students for their impact/kindness project
Time:
Video watching: 10 min
Discussion time: 40 min
Group break-out: 60 min
Community/Kindness project: Time determined by group and action chosen
Report creation: 60 min
®2010, The Random Acts Of Kindness Foundation
1727 Tremont Place, Denver, CO 80202 • Phone: 800-660-2811 • Fax: 303-297-2919
www.randomactsofkindness.org
Guiding principles of 21st Century Skills from Partnership for 21st Century Skills: www.p21.org
Videos courtesy of 50 in 52 Journey (c) 2009
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