An Education
We have been learning lots over the past few months at Warm Earth. We have forged a great learning relationship with Foundry Oasis Academy our local primary school. Every Thursday and Friday afternoon students have been coming over to the field for some hands on practical Geography lessons. We are merging their curriculum with the outdoor opportunities for learning that the natural world provides. We have learnt about our environment and the importance of soil. Students have had fun identifying trees and going on bug hunts, really getting to know their natural environment.
Layers of the rainforest by year 6
Radished sowed by year 1 and 2
With year 1 and 2 we successfully planted and grew radishes. Year 6 have reconstructed the layers of a tropical rainforest using natural materials from the field, and we have done lots of map reading and orienteering. The outdoors offers such a rich learning experience and one that we often deny our children. I heard a statistic recently that, on average, children spend 5 hours outdoors a week. In fact a Guardian article stated that during the pandemic primary aged children’s screen time went up by 83 minutes a day, linking this with increased anxiety and poorer diets. It has been exciting working with the school to, if ever so slightly, try to readdress that balance. One moment that particularly sticks in my mind from this term was when some of the children discovered potatoes as they were digging in one of our growing beds. It was like they had discovered gold. We were then able to connect the dots between soil, growing and food-pure magic.
Alpaca poo Biogas
Ernie creating a rocket stove.
We have been learning ourselves at Warm Earth. We are always looking to innovate and learn new ways of finding sustainable ways to live. Ernie recently spent some time at the Centre of Alternative Technology (CAT). He came back brimming with new ideas. So far he has experimented with creating biogas from alpaca poo. The idea being that burning the methane gas collected has far less effect on the climate. Although our climate is too cold to naturally create bio gas, temperatures need to tropical, we are experimenting with hooking our bio gas chamber up to one of our hot composting bins and using the warmth (up to 70 degrees c) to create enough heat for the reaction to take place.
We have also been experimenting with a rocket chimney to heat our polytunnels during the winter months. This provides a much more efficient way of burning wood at high temperatures whilst using very little fuel. Rocket stove are able to produce a nearly complete combustion, meaning that most of the chemical compounds are burned instead of being turned into smoke or soot.
It just goes to show that we never stop learning.
Interested in learning with us? Come and find us on the Field Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10am-1pm.