Edutopia

The Edible Schoolyard

The Edible Schoolyard is a podcast about Martin Luther King Junior Middle School, in Berkely, California, that allows their students to plant organic fruits and vegetables. The garden and the kitchen are used as the students' learning labs where they learn many subjects-life, science, math, and social studies. The garden is the actual center of teaching. The students learn how to cooperate together through group projects, ecology, photosynthesis, and much more. This edible garden also gives the students and teachers a nutritional diet.

I really enjoyed this podcast. It made me think back to Randy Pausch's lecture when he discussed the concept of the "head fake." These students are having so much fun gardening together while learning so much more.

This podcast really backs up my thoughts that learning should be fun. I learned so much more in many of my classes thanks to the instructor making it interesting and relating to me. This video really shows how having fun can be educational.

The Edible Schoolyard can also be viewed online: The Edible Schoolyard

A Night in the Global Village

A Night in the Global Village is a podcast about students at the Rocky Mountain School of Expeditionary Learning in Denver that give up their privileged status, as Americans, for one night to basically talk a walk in other, less fortunate, shoes. They explore structures/houses set up to mimic Guatemala, Thailand, Zambia, Appalachia, and a refugee camp. In each house, they are enligntened a little more about the actual housing structure and conditions. The students are grouped up and have to work together because no one group has all the resources they need, such as water, food, and wood. They have to work together to figure out how to "survive" the night, and this is made even more difficult while no one from the refugee camp cannot speak any English.

This is a really good program because it allows the students to actually put themselves in the shoes of ones less fortunate rather than just reading about. It is something about being able to actually see how others struggle and survive life day by day. It gives them a chance to reflect, be thankful for being an American, and maybe even a chance to help those less fortunate.

I wish I could send my younger sister to this camp because it really hurts and annoys me to see how ungrateful she is. She gets anything she wants from my mom. You name it, she has it. But yet, my mother can ask her something simple like take the trash out and she pouts! Not only does she pout, she may even yell a little. I'm always telling her she's ungrateful...I'm going to tell my mom about this podcast!