吃瓜爆料

Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Andrew J. Schneller, is intent on helping his Skidmore students elicit meaningful change in the community, whether through creating hydroponic systems at a local high school to help underserved communities, or teaching local first, second, and third graders the importance of gardening and learning about how their food is grown.  

For the past twelve years, Professor Schneller has introduced his students to the importance and value of learning through teaching by having them teach a lesson designed by Shelburne Farms in Burlington, Vermont, called 鈥淭he Fab Five in the Garden.鈥� This lesson teaches first, second, and third graders in Saratoga Springs about the five things that plants need to survive: water, soil, air, space, and sunlight. As part of this program, Professor Schneller鈥檚 students set up stations for the children where they learn about how composting and pollination work and then get to taste both local and exotic foods. His students divide into groups of three and each group teaches the children about a certain topic. For example, one group teaches about composting, degradation, and the importance of fungi, bacteria, and insects, and another teaches about pollination. Local kids then come to the community garden where they dress up as birds, bats, bees, butterflies, and other animals. They then make their way to each station where they learn hands-on from the Skidmore students by looking at insects under magnifying glasses to see how pollination works or observing how plants use water. After attending each station, the kids have a chance to eat local foods such as varieties of different local apples as well as more unusual items that they may have never been exposed to such as seaweed and rambutan. In the end, Professor Schneller helps his students get real-world experience teaching and helps the youth of Saratoga Springs better understand the natural processes that go into making their food. The model for this class is a win-win situation as his students gain experience teaching while simultaneously serving the Saratoga Springs community.