暑期班Chopping Block(澄7y）

小BIE今天參加了PUNAHOU學校的暑期班：chopping Block學煮食，順道讓媽媽感受一下另一間民主學校的感覺。

STUDENTS GROW TOGETHER IN ‘CHOPPING BLOCK’

CAMILA CHAUDRON '08

JULY 9, 2014

Second graders excitedly drew out their weekly reflections using crayons and iPads in the Winne Units on July 3, 2014. Across the way, third graders demonstrated their knowledge of the photosynthesis process through song, accompanied by their teacher on the ‘ukulele. In an adjacent classroom, fourth grade students cranked out homemade pasta. Despite the range in activities, all three classes share a common bond: They all form part of “Chopping Block,” a newly designed five-week Summer School course that “integrates a creativity house, a green house and a culinary house,” explained Elizabeth Sugahara ’08, a teacher assistant for the course.

The idea behind “Chopping Block” is to have students “learn to make connections between themselves and the food they eat,” said Natalie Hayashi, the course coordinator. In the creativity house, led by Jocelynne Mizuuchi, the students use the food cycle as a foil for developing standard English skills such as reading, writing and presenting. In the green house, students learn the science behind what makes plants grow, conducting experiments and plotting data guided by Brandt Like ’94. The lessons come to fruition in the culinary house, where students get to cook and eat their own food with teacher Lars Mitsuda.

The incoming grade 2 – 4 students rotate among the three classrooms accompanied by a teacher assistant, so they all get the opportunity to experience each aspect of the multi-layered course. “The big concepts remain the same for all three grades, but the expectations and level of support are adjusted depending on the age-appropriateness of the activity,” explains Sugahara.

All of the students enrolled in “Chopping Block” have also benefitted from class field trips, including a recent visit to Tin Roof Ranch in Haleiwa. “There, they learned about sustainability on the farm and the difference between caged and free range chickens,” said Hayashi. In Like’s science classroom, the third graders reflected on the most memorable aspects of the trip by creating a colorful mural: “The chicken coops were made of recycled wood,” one student said while describing their drawing. “And how does recycling wood help the environment?” Like asked, prodding the student to go further with their reflection. “It means that there is less wood in the landfills!” he answers.

Over in the culinary house, students’ most recent dish focused on how to make pasta using eggs from Tin Roof Ranch. After mixing flour and water with the freshly collected eggs, they cranked the dough into thin strips and enjoyed their handmade meal. “The students saw first-hand where their eggs came from, which reinforced what ‘farm to table’ means,” Mitsuda explained. In their journals, the students wrote out the steps to the recipe so they can replicate them at home.

The classes also visited Otsuji Farms in Honolulu, where students learned about the importance of supporting local food farmers to reduce the state’s dependence on imports. There, they harvested daikon and bok choy, and back at the culinary house, used them in their meal for the day. “Parents have come and told us: ‘My child, who is an extremely picky eater, is now eating his vegetables!’” Hayashi exclaimed proudly. “That is the impact of this course, they are learning about what plants are and where they come from, and because of that understanding they incorporate vegetables into their lives.”

Many of the lessons happen on campus as well: Students learned how to pound taro from Daniel Anthony, the owner of Mana Ai, a company dedicated to educating the community about sustainable and local food options. The students marched up to the top of Pu‘u O Manoa – also known as Rocky Hill – and cleaned, peeled and pounded the kalo into pa‘i‘ai.

The students are also able to use custom-built hydraponic planters to grow kale, bok choy and sun hemp. An aquaponics system grows two different types of kalo, and houses tilapia in the water basin below. “They get to see the full seed-to-seed cycle, planting lima beans and charting their growth. At the end of the course, they’ll take their plants home and eat them. We are experimenting with leaves, stems and roots, and use a microscope to see what they look like on the cellular level,” Like explained. “This class integrates their learning of science, math, drawing, vocabulary... everything, all in one!”