Farming at Sisters High School

One of the benefits of having a state-of-the-art community-built greenhouse so handy at Sisters High School is the doors of opportunity it opens for students. Recently, with the help of Audrey Tehan of the Seed to Table project, 14 students from Glen Herron's biology class got into farming in a big way.

According to Tehan, "The main goal of the class is to foster a deep understanding and curiosity about our agriculture systems. It is a vast topic of biology, socioeconomics, chemistry, government systems, culture, math and sooo much more. It is the perfect class to be offering juniors and seniors so they can really bring together a lot of classes they have."

Tehan's experience with introducing students to farming will eventually fill a book: "Food is what allows us to thrive and be successful in our daily lives and these agricultural systems are often overlooked," she notes. "If we did not have many of the technologies and efficiencies involved with modern agriculture most of us would still be working on our family farms trying to feed ourselves and our community.

"However, this modern agriculture system has left us detached from our food.  The greenhouse class connects a lot of dots for students. For our first day of class I asked students where they thought garlic was from - there were so many wondering faces from high school seniors, when one tentatively asked, 'it's grown on a tree right? Noooo wait, a bush? Or maybe like an onion?'

"The correct answer is that garlic is grown like an onion, it is the bulb of a plant that must be dug up. Our food system is critical to our health and livelihood, although we take it for granted every single day - and are fortunate to be able to do so."

Chapter one of organic gardening opened up for SHS senior Meredith Mandel of Glen Herron's biology class, as she and her partner, Mia Burton began planting spinach and other veggies.

"I've only been in the greenhouse for a couple of weeks," she said, "and last week was the third time we've actually got our hands dirty, but I can tell it's going to be a great class.

"I think it's really important to learn about how to grow food, even of you don't choose to become a farmer, it can still be applied to everyday life. It's important that there are classes like this to reach out to students, because the average age of farmers is 56, so we need more people to get interested in agriculture."

"Learning about hydroponics has allowed me to learn about all the different nutrients that go into growing flowers and produce in a controlled environment," said senior Austin Morss. "Hydroponics may play a role in my future because I'm interested in the business side of agriculture as a career."

Senior Jared May was introduced to the science of hydroponics and found these new doors before him compelling, especially for future educational projects.

"In the greenhouse/organic farming class at Sisters High School we are learning all about organic farming methods both traditional and modern," he said. "Currently, the most popular method of organic farming is to use chemical-free fertilizers, composts, manures, or bonemeal to keep soil nutrient rich and safe. These nutrients are then either tilled into soil in the ground or mixed with soil and put into pots for a greenhouse. But we are also learning about a newer more productive method, the method of hydroponics.

"Hydroponics consists of plants grown in a nutrient deficient growing medium such as perlite (lava rock that has been heated at high temperatures), coconut fibers, rock moss, etc. In the Sisters High School greenhouse we use rock moss. The rock moss is used just as something the plant roots can grow into and supplies none of the nutrients."

Hydroponics is especially applicable in urban settings, where large areas of land are unavailable to growers.

"Every day in the greenhouse class we learn more about how hydroponics and organic farming can be applied to real world scenarios, and the idea that food can be grown in urban areas is exciting, because that means everyone can get locally sourced organic food and be conscious about what they are eating. And the more conscious someone is about what they eat, the healthier they can be."

As each student cares for his and her young seedlings, watching them grow, the experience grows into a positive experience that opens new doors in chemistry, harvesting, preparation of agricultural products and health and economics.

Teacher Glen Herron, sums up the class experience: "Our greenhouse/organic farm class does a great job of blending the education in the classroom to the real world.  The students will learn plant physiology and develop the knowledge and skills necessary to design, supervise and maintain a greenhouse and organic farm. What the students learn in the classroom they then get to apply in the greenhouse or at the farm giving them more ownership of their learning and making it more relevant.

"Having the state-of-the-art greenhouse built adjacent to the high school has allowed this type of experiential learning. These are the types of classes that cause more students to become passionate about learning and allows them to develop the skills and confidence to be successful in any career pathway they choose."