betsy's blog

January 21, 2012 was a great day for the Agriscience Component!  If you've read Kerry's blog, you know that each week Theresa, our wonderful volunteer, has brought chicks that were born on Thanksgiving for the teens to see as they grow and get used to handling.  Four of the hens will live here at the Science Center this summer.  The Agriscience teens will take care of them and we will have fresh eggs!

This past Saturday, Theresa also brought Zeus, the rooster, and Helen, the hen, who are the chicks' parents.  The teens quickly learned why we can't keep roosters in the city.  We heard cock-a-doodle-dooing throughout the Taylor building all day!!  Check out Kerry's blog for great pics of the teens with the chicks, Zeus and Helen.

In addition to chickens, we had Eric Schwarz, the Sustainability Coordinator for Habitat for Humanity Saint Louis.  In December, Kerry and I attended a workshop at the Habitat ReStore on how to build cold frames (mini-greenhouses that will extend our growing season on Science Corner) using old windows and wood frames. Eric taught the workshop and we told him about our program.  He offered to come and help us build cold frames with the teens!

Yesterday (10/12/11) the Agriscience teens visited the Maplewood Farmers Market.  In an informal survey in Learning Lab I had learned that many of the teens had visited Soulard Market with their families but few realized St. Louis now has a variety of farmers markets throughout the area.

I chose Maplewood because the market is hosted by Schlafly Bottleworks, where some of the food on the menu is grown on-site in the Schlafly Gardenworks, a large garden adjacent to the restaurant, and much of the food on the restaurant menu is locally-produced.

The teens interviewed market vendors about various topics, such as how they decide what to grow, whether they harvest their own produce, what some of the unfamiliar vegetables were and how to prepare them - whatever sparked their interest.  Then we all got back together and shared who we talked to and what we learned.

Next we toured the Schlafly Gardenworks.  The teens walked on straw pathways between rows of various types of lettuce and other mixed salad greens, swiss chard, herbs such as basil and cilantro, grape tomatoes, beets and other vegetables.