Elaine's Project
Michael Fields Agricultural Institute- East Troy, WI
Elaine’s Project
Elaine’s Project is inspired by Dr. Elaine Kohler’s passionate dedication to improving the health of inner city children. Elaine’s Project will address the damaging and often deadly health effects that inner city economic, environmental and social conditions have on its resident children and their families, particularly through increased health services and educational programs emphasizing lifestyle, nutrition and access to healthy foods. The goal of Elaine’s Project is to create a replicable Project-Based Learning program for healthier lifestyles and living environments toward improving student and family health, building awareness and capacity with an emphasis on generational sustainability.
Michael Fields Agricultural Institute will install and steward the maintenance of Teutonia Urban Garden (TUG) providing an Environmental-Based site for hands-on health and sciences fieldwork and the physical and mental benefits of outdoor activity for the Academy of Learning and Leadership student body during the school year. The Garden Educator will provide ecological education to students in their classrooms, on-site at TUG and through ‘mirrored learning’ on sustainable, rural farms as well as facilitate ALL teachers in garden-curriculum integration.
The “Whole Picture Experience”
“Why is it so quiet?,” wondered teachers observing the 60-sixth grade students eating their annual Harvest Meal in the cafeteria of Academy of Learning and Leadership.
“Quiet…and calm,” whisperedanother astonished onlooker. “Never have I seen such a respectful gathering with these students.”
Students sat upright at their seats and spoke in hushed tones with heads slightly bowed to one another while waiting their turn to receive the meal they had personally prepared from harvesting to table setting. The scene was remarkable for its marked difference in attitude and behavior on the part of students when food is usually involved.
This fall the three sixth grade classes at the Academy of Learning and Leadership came to Michael Fields Agricultural Institute (MFAI) to conduct their Field Work exercises. Each class was given the task of preparing food for a Harvest Meal that the entire sixth grade, a total of 60 students, would participate in. Preparations included harvesting, cooking, setting and beautifying the table, serving, eating, clean-up, and setting aside enough food to contribute to the Harvest Meal.
The Harvest Meal was the celebration of a process begun at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute which hosted these and several other grades from Academy of Learning and Leadership throughout the school year. The Michael Fields’ site is located in East Troy, Wisconsin where farmers are trained to farm sustainably providing livelihood and locally produced foods to farmer and community.
These 11 year old students live in an area of Milwaukee that is home to concentrated poverty rates significantly exceeding national standards. Many of the ALL students are challenged by short attention spans, hyper-activity, and are easily disengaged from their environment.
When students brought their own lunches provided by the school, students showed very aggressive behavior, shoving to be first in line, often tearing apart lunch bags and damaging the contents. Many students were packing away food into their back packs for later use. This hoarding behavior extended even when students ate meals provided by Michael Fields. It became obvious that many students may not know when their next meal might be and that food could be a symbol of power or be used for acquiring power with peers.
Michael Fields’ staff began to develop the process of a “Whole Picture Experience”.
We discovered that when the students went from harvesting, preparing, cooking and clean-up a transformation in behavior occurred. The most notable behavior change was that at mealtime. The students sat still and ate slowly, spoke in normal tones, and did not show any aggression towards getting their food. They sat quietly until it was their turn to get their food and were eager to help and be useful, especially in the kitchen.
When students participate in every step of the process they experience a continuity and connection with everything they do and they, themselves, are integral to that process. All of a sudden their efforts become meaningful. Students stopped complaining and rarely did students refuse to participate. Once they experienced and understood their activity within an entire process they fully cooperated. These behavioral changes were consistent in all three classes which visited Michael Fields on several occasions.
When we brought all the parts together for the Harvest Meal we were in the school environment, not at MFAI. The change in environment was an unknown factor as to how it would affect the process or if there would be any disconnect to the Field Work Experiences. It was important to involve the students as much as possible by preparing the table, making menus, and creating the Thanks.As the students came up one table at a time to get their food we casually asked students what they helped make. Slowly, they opened up and began to talk about the Field Work experiences they personally were involved in.
While the students ate and finished up, an amazing thing transpired. One by one teachers approached me and commented on how quiet and well-behaved the kids were. The teachers had never experienced such calmness in the students at lunchtime. It was the same calm that we had experienced at MFAI.
An interesting and unexpected thing happened after the students finished their meal - the school cafeteria staff had left-over chicken patties served to the other students of the school and offered them to the students. Before anyone knew it, students dashed to get in line to get a chicken patty. There was pushing and shoving. The competition was on! The behavior quickly digressed into loud talking; the din of noise was incredible. It took several minutes (approximately 20 minutes) before teachers could regroup their students into a responsive group again.
Michael Fields’ staff returned that day to begin planning for next year’s activities, knowing that the possibility they witnessed that day was an encouraging beginning in learning how to facilitate these students with educational environments reflecting the Whole Picture Experience in garden, school, kitchen and meal. With the continued development of Teutonia Urban Garden, Field Work on-site at Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Train the Teacher courses, an educational kitchen adjacent to TUG, increased staffing support and garden wear for the students, Elaine’s Project will continue to receive the level of support it requires to meet its aggressive goals.
Elaine’s Project 2009 Research Summary
The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether inner city school children (K4-8th grade) participating in an experiential educational school (Academy of Leadership and Learning) will improve their health and demonstrate a reverse in the national and local statistics for diabetes, obesity and lead poisoning through the participation in gardening activities, increased programming in physical and outdoor education, and nutritional education.
Project details
Elaine’s Project – Teutonia Urban Garden 2008 Report Read More
Better food, better behavior in schools project
The goal of this project is to study the relationship between existing healthy school lunch programs and evidence of behavioral changes in the participating students. » Project details
Michael Fields Agricultural Institute is a public, non-profit institute for education and research in sustainable agriculture, which admits students of any race, color and national or ethnic origin.