permaculture

[Dick Pierce <dickpiercedesigns@gmail.com>]

Alyssa, greetings in Peru - my knowledge on your request is extremely
limited, as is I'm guessing all of PC. It is a great question and topic - I
hope the list responds in numbers to you and that you might publish a
compendium of the ideas you get. Here are a couple:

-In Guatemala at my [adult, Campesino] PDC done by Geoff Lawton and Ronnie
Lec, they had a great exercise for zones and sectors. We had a dirt floor in
our classroom - a big tool shed. They scratched in the circles/zones with a
stick. Several days before, we asked the local grade school children,
through their teacher/principle, to draw and color animal and elements (cow,
horse, garden, shed, house, fruit trees, guinea pigs, chickens, coop, rabbit
hutch, etc.) on individual sheets of paper. Then, the night before, the
instructor laid the papers, like cards upside down on the floor. Each
student "drew a card" as his/her homework assignment - "In which zone does
my animal/plant/feature belong, and why?" The next morning the exercise
started with each student placing their item in the appropriate zone and
explaining why. There developed an amazing [and excited/almost heated]
discussion as class members disagreed with the placement. It was great to
see education going on with non-English communications - most was in Mayan
and we had to ask for translations.

You could adapt this to a smaller area, 3x5 cards (perhaps also use them for
flash cards with the Spanish, Native, English name on the back for another
education game), and use a cork board and string/yarn pinned on for zones.
My teacher daughter [and me, too] love the old flannel/felt board for group
activities - on this, zones and sectors (cold wind, hot sun, fire, noise,
smell) could be done very well and simple/low budget with a felt board and
colorful cutouts.

-The idea of flash cards plays well with my young students, including high
school and on into my regular classes. I encourage them to start and build
their own plant/tree/flower design palette or inventory during the class.
Flash cards of trees and veggie plants work well at all ages - good for
breaks or lunch or travel time in the van or to borrow and take home and
practice on family members. We have brochures or web sites with pictures,
short descriptions - that can be cut/pasted onto 3x5 - picture on front,
name and desc. on back. Self study or small groups. Great for students -
both making them and then practicing. Also a great way to do/teach
translation - have native, Spanish, English name.

-We do a big scale of a felt board in the beginning of the Design Workshop -
call it the *"Felt Design Exercise".* We do four teams and 4 designs - each
team gets a 4x4 green felt cloth to put flat on a table or floor. Each can
be given the same or a different property (we use a 60x120 city lot, a half
acre suburban lot, a 5-15 acre country place, etc.). Teams are instructed to
"invent"/create their base map - property lines, North, scale, topography/
slope (balled up paper, small pillow, rock under the felt), roads, paths,
existing structures, major trees, pond/creek/river, etc. They make these
features from nature's supply (rocks, pebbles, grass. straw, twigs, etc.) or
from cut-outs from colored felt squares (easy to travel with, have mailed
from home - if not available in Peru; every traveller should have some - or
cut up textile scraps from remnant bags or the dump) - dogs, ducks,
chickens, animals, plants, trees. Now they put in the flows from sectors -
cut outs of cold wind, hot sun, fire, etc. And then put on the elements of
their design - felt cut outs, cleverly built trees (twigs, sprigs, modeling
clay, esp for tree bases, sticks, blocks, small books, etc.). We also get
great stuff built out of different colored "pipe cleaners" - banana and palm
trees for instance.

With adults and high school students, after an hour of planning, building
the base, deciding on a design and building it (according to PC aims,
principles, aims, techniques, elements), the groups take 5 minutes to
prepare their presentations and who speaks about what. The group walks
around to each design, listens, then gives affirmations and positive
comments, and applauds. Then on to the next group. This is a child's
exercise used with adults - very effective for visual learners, kinesthetic
folks, and children of all ages. Children are better at it, get it, and get
into it quicker.

-Keeping journals - sketching while observing are great and simple and
something to take home for show and tell, give to teacher for review and
[positive] comment. I still carry my Naturalist's Notebook - a fat, fat
spiral bound notebook, about 8 1/2 X 5 1/2, a knife/scissors, scotch tape
and a pencil/pen, [and in remote Peru a little cloth bag of gifts.] When I
see something I like/don't have/don't know - I clip [reverently/thankfully -
remember in most societies, you leave a small offering (tobacco, candy,
colored cloth strip, food) in exchange and thanks to the plant/spirits] a
sample of leaf, flower, stem, slice of dry fruit - and paste it on a new
page in my notebook - writing in where I found it, what I think it is, other
things about it (microclimate, who was eating it, etc). I close the book,
which becomes my plant press - it's good to have a big fat rubber band to
keep it closed in my back pack. When the samples make the book too fat, I
remove a few unused pages.

-Last one - but simple and we should all use more - students doing charts on
living elements - using the chicken as the example - outputs/functions,
needs/inputs, and intrinsic characteristics. Don't forget to have students
[with help from fellow students if needed] draw the animal, plant, or
element in the middle first. Also you can list the
needs/outputs/characteristics in the native language and then do a class
exercise in translation and write English/Spanish name under each item.
Could also draw small pictures of each input/output - then write native and
English/Spanish - so you have a truly universal/no language required visual
aid.

-Soil testing and demonstration - 1) prelim test - 2" of a soil in a glass
jar or clear plastic cup with lid - fill 1/3 with soil, 3/4 with water;
shake, shake shake. Do as many as you want or have jars for - take from
students yards or garden or various spots on the property. Everyone shakes a
jar. Shake again. Let settle for 1- 24 hours - review the results - jars
side by side - see the sand, clay/silt, organic material, compost (floats) -
see how samples differ. 2) if you have 1-2 liter soda bottles and paper
coffee filters (or loose-woven cloth as substitute), and a simple kitchen,
school scale for 1 oz - 1 lb). Cut soda bottle about 2/3 up from bottom into
2 pieces - one becomes a container, the other a filter/funnel. If you can,
make 4 of these sets. Set each one up - invert funnel and place on top of
container, and put in a coffee filter in the funnel. Weigh out equal
quantities of sand, clay/silt, organic material (the real stuff - finely
strained, fine crumbs, like dry, ground coffee), and what you think is real
good garden soil and place one sample in each of the filter papers. "Shmush"
the material around on the filter paper so it is spread out to edges, with
lip/berm if possible. A "lab" page and pencil at each station.

Select students/teams of 2 to do each soil type. Record the start time  and
the sample weight on each lab sheet.  Pour a measured amount of water (half
a cup to a cup, maybe) into each sample - careful to pour only onto sample
and slow enough that the water does not rise onto the paper only (soaks only
into/through the sample, not just the paper). Write down the time when the
measured amount of water has flowed through the sample - is either in the
container or absorbed in the sample - no standing water pooled on sample
(clay/silt will take a long time, sand is real quick, organic material,
in-between. Now take each sample and weigh again - how many times the
original weight is the sample now - sand is usually 110-120% or 1.1 - 1.2 X;
organic material should be 2-6 times; good soil should be 2.0-2.5 times,
clay/silt should be 2 times (but it will take a long, long time - best is to
do this at or before lunch so you can track the times over an hour or two
and report after lunch or later in the day. It is a great visual reinforcer
of your soil talk - we asy that good soil is 25% water, 25% air, 22.5% sand,
22.5% silt/clay, and 5% organic material.

Have students report to group on the time to drain and the amount of
absorption - and comment on what happened, why, and what does that mean for
good soil, for their soil, for plants/trees, etc. If you have time and
resources at the end or later - mix up what you say is the best soil, by
weight - 47% sand, 47% silt/clay, and 6% fine organic material - and do the
drainage/absorption test. Compare results with local sample and with
individual components.

I like these above - hope you notice the amount of student creation,
art/drawing, getting to multi-lingual/non-lingual, discovery, experiential,
and use of salvaged, recycle, local materials. On that, making things out of
waste materials is great - I remember Ronnie Lec in Guatemala weaving very
usable doormats from plastic grocery bags - tied together or slipped
together through the handles into strings and then braiding them like a rug.
Also saw a lady at a craft fair making great pocket books out of plastic
bags - she'd bunch a bag together in a certain way, then cut in a certain
way that she got long strands of "crunched up" plastic that she could knit
like a bulky sweater. With adults I love to go to the dump, if the community
still has an open dump - things to recycle, gather for compost, things to
re-use. Martha's Vineyard has a store at the dump where people drop off
clothes, shoes, dishes, glassware, etc. that can be re-used - on their way
to the dump. The store is operated by volunteers, all contribute their
share and, thus, all its mercandise is free.

You are tired of reading - I meant to give you the one on the top of the
list, and the other ones came "tumbling after". I hope they help and are of
use to you. I also hope that you will share the fantastic lesson plans that
will come out of this. I think we need to adapt many of these to adult
classes. Learning is always with us as is the creative child in each of us.
I'm sending a copy of this to my Daughter, Lissa, in Amherst - I'd like you
to get together when you return to the PV - and she specializes in these
kinds of exercises for adults and children and has considerable experience
in adapting things to non-English, non-American, Ecuadorian, and Guatemalan
environments. She is my mentor and inspiration on this - and she might have
a pearl or two of her own on teaching observation of nature, soil, water,
plants, trees, food, etc. Last thing, get them cooking, eating, growing,
then cooking, eating what they grow as soon as you can.

Best to you. Good luck in Peru. Would love to hear of your successes and
your compilation of lessons por ninos. Gracias

Dick Pierce



On Sun, Mar 28, 2010 at 12:56 PM, alyssa mckim <lyss_live@yahoo.com> wrote:

> My name is Alyssa McKim, I am new to the list serve. I have been practicing
> permaculture in varying ways for 2  1/2 years now. I am from M.A,
> U.S.A, was certified at Yestermorrow Design and Build School in Vermont.
>  I am currently living in The Sacred Valley of Peru, living and working in
> a community, expanding my permaculture knowledge in a very holistic way.
> I have been asked to hold a few intro to permaculture workshops at a
> local school, I am having a great difficulty finding resources in
> permaculture curriculum for children and even more specifically
> Peruvian children. If anyone has any advise or resources that they could
> share i would be ssoooo gratful!
> Thanks
> > Alyssa McKim
>
>  amrexaic
>
>
>
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