A bunch of empty boxes?

Now, Let's talk GREEN!

Schools in (Design) Session

Please forward your thoughts to add to this list for consideration-

• Brainstorm to develop both job and learning opportiunities through project based learning started at the greenhouses, establishing them as a base camp for real world learning.
• Set up residential community of bees to increase plant propogation. Teach beekeeping while taking part in global environmental impact learning studies about bees.
• Develop digital communications and storage techniques establishing web based information systems accesible to all as open source learning.
• Develop new on and off site composting projects. The compost can obviously be used for vegetable and landscape gardening. This could also blend into the reforestation projects
• Develop new and old understandings of efficient means of food production and share these practical understandings with individuals, communities and institutions to help them provide nutritious foods for their culinary needs.
• Work with programs already underway in these greenhouses to teach people challenged by accessibility issues how to grow their own foods and flowers.
• Explore ways to prepare foods for consumption and storage using various safe practices like canning, solar dehydration, solar cooking and many other yet to be discussed practical applications.
•    Partner with existing academic programs to provide adjunct and post learning opportunities. Helping to establish a 21st century mandate to lessen the real costs associated with public education by taking it into the community. Oakland technical schools has a landscape design course covering many aspects of horticulture and aquaculture. There are many people who have been through that program and have either under or never utilized the tools learned there. It is said that there are over 100 trees planted on the Big lake campus alone and identifying them is part of the academic process. One outcome could be...
• We need a STAT program to asses the health of our forests and riperian corridors for development of a workable reforestation plan. This alone could provide not only employment for thousands but approached from a a holistic viewpoint could be used to better understand nature and help develop the objective science based truth about natural systems including among other things humanities impact upon it, whether positive or negative.
  
  
  
  

Food Rules for the Rest of Us — YES! Magazine

Food Rules for the Rest of Us — YES! Magazine

This is a reprint from a Yes Magazine blog and speaks simply to the very essence of "You are what you eat, but you also are what you eat eats". If you can eat nutriciously locally grown foods raised simply and organically as possible, then why not join a growing number of self directed consumers who are changing the rules for how our food is brought to the table.

Greening a CoOperative Learning Environment

One of the basic requirements for establishing a CoOperative learning environment is an awareness and commitment of participants capacity to objectively agree to disagree in the pursuit of knowledge where ever they may find it.
 While the environment or sense of place plays a secondary but important aspect in the early development of such relationships, development of a comfortable place for collaboration can help build trust amongst the participants. Where Trust, communication and hands-on cooperative learning are established, chances are there is fertile ground for growing new ideas, projects and tangential relationships that can bring lasting friendships and capacity for change.
 The Community Greenhouses in Waterford at the old Ernst proprty has many of the elements needed for just such a learning environment to take place.
 By cooperatively pooling resouces of time, energy, ideas, physical resources and money perhaps we can create some sustaining projects and working relationships that can grow into our communities, empowering all manner of creative involvement.
 This morning just walking around the Royal Oak market and talking with farmers selling their produce I am reminded of the cooperative need and capacity to co-create tangible answers to lower the cost of delivering good quality food to the public. If we could develop a small cooperative to explore amongst other ideas the use of Solar air heating systems to extend growing seasons and to cut food drying costs by perhaps 50-60%. Just the act of exploring such a project has enormous opportunity to build cooperative learning environments.
 Many of the farmers I have spoken to would be interested in co-participating to varying degrees in exploring better uses of natural energies to produce better quality and less expesive foods.
 Organic is in, what is needed is proper preperation of the growing environment that will allow for growing organic ideas and communications that will help change the way we live our lives and do business in our communities.
Why don't you step up with your shovel and some seeds, dig in let's get busy!

Now this is the stuff "Green" Houses are made of

http://www.eng.rpi.edu/lemelson/img/students/Bayer_Web.pdf

and here is some of the "end" uses-

http://www.ecovativedesign.com/ecocradle/disposal/

Ernst Community Greenhouse

I visited Oakland County's newest greenhouse acquisition- the former Ernst Greenhouses located @ 1580 Scott Lake Rd, Waterford, MI 48328. 248-673-6199
Most of the Greenhouses there are heated year round and could be an excellant laboratory for all manner of collaborative learning.
The facility is open so far as a community resource which to date has been vastly underutilized. Perhaps this could be used

•  by groups wanting to learn how to grow community gardens
• Learning enviroment for solar air and water heating
• Scientific analysis of soils microbiology
• composting learning and development center
• Plant your ideas here......