Presentations of Learning #6

Presentations of Learning #6

Res Life by Laurel

Context & Example: This Sunday for res life we took a trip to Sunflower Farm. At this farm they have Nigerian Dwarth Goats! Currently they have baby goats and some adults too. These goats were as young as two days old. I have to admit they’re one of the most adorable animals I have seen.  The baby goats would let us hold them in our arms or jump and run around crazily. 

Relevance: After getting to play with and hold the goats, Hope, the owner and cheesemaker told us all about her cheeses. We learned about how goat cheese is made. We also learned Nigerian Dwarf do not produce a lot of milk each day, but the milk they do produce has a very high fat content. That high fat content is really good for making butter and cheese, so depending on if you want milk or butter and cheese Nigerian Dwarfs may be the right type of goat for you. 

Spark: The farm was wonderful, getting to see all the baby goats and try the goat cheese really made for an enjoyable Sunday. I believe that each girl would now love to have her own baby goat.

Marine Science by Jennah


Context: In Marine Science, we have been working hard on our Independent Research Projects, but we have also been writing essays for a contest called "From The Bow Seat" and it is an ocean awareness essay contest. The contest is about human environmental impacts on the ocean and, specifically, the Gulf of Maine.

Example & Relevance: The contest has two default questions but I chose to make my own. We have been using what we have learned in Marine Science to research and answer the essay questions. My essay is about the shorebird Piping Plover and how it has been endangered due to humans harming their natural ecosystem, beaches. However, many people have pitched in to help them out and their numbers have been going up recently. A good video about their conservation can be seen here:

Spark: Through doing this essay I have learned more about beach ecosystems and what kinds of animals live there. Writing an essay has helped me work on my persuasive writing skills as well. Also I realized how beaches are very important to the health of the ocean and they are in much need of conservation. I hope that through this essay I can inform other people about shorebirds and how to take care of local beaches.

Presentations of Learning #5

Presentations of Learning #5

Spanish by Susan

Context & Example: This past week in Spanish, we were assigned a video project. As a class of four, we could either choose to create a public service announcement or a commercial. We came to the consensus of creating a public service announcement about zombies attacking CSG, and warning the public of how they should protect themselves. We divided what we wanted in the script into four parts, and then wrote out the parts that we would be speaking (in Spanish).  We included the history of zombies, why they were attacking, and how to prevent them from attacking. 

Relevance: This is the second video project that we have done this year. These projects are my favorite class activity, because I feel like I’m learning and practicing a lot of the language. 

Spark: At my sending school, my former Spanish classes were almost completely conversational and book work. At CSG, my Spanish classes involve a variety of learning methods and are extremely fun to work on. 

Res. Life by Liesl

Context: We have exercise every Monday, Thursday, and Sunday. In early March, we added 20 minutes of running to our regimen in preparation for our 5K. During this 20 minutes, we would sometimes do conveyor belt runs, which  involves running in a line, and the last person in line sprints to the front. Usually, we'd warm up by doing that to the state park and back, then run laps from the farmhouse to Burnett road and back again. We also set 5K goals, which could pertain to a specific time, or a pacing method.

Example: The process leading up to the 5K is an example of the process behind any long-term goal. We learned through practicing that it is necessary to plan for and take action steps to complete a larger project. On race day, April 28th, we all were rewarded with the progress that came from consistently following our action steps.

Relevance: We learned about how to carry out goals, not just how to set them, which will be relevant and important with any future athletic goals, as well as academic and social ones.

Spark: Even though I've run cross-country and track races on my school's team for a few years now, I think it would be fun to try an official race, possibly with some of the other girls here!

Marine Science by Railey


Context and Example: Recently in Marine Science class, we have been working on our independent research projects. For the project, we were split into groups of two and three, and with our group we decided on a research question that we wanted to learn more about. The research questions are relevant to what we’ve been studying in class, and we developed our methods with our available resources in mind.

Relevance: It’s been really cool to work independently with our groups, and it takes a lot of communication and patience to effectively create and execute a ‘game plan.’ This is relevant because we’ve been using many of the skills we’ve learned in leadership class to successfully work on our research projects.

Spark: This has sparked my interest in both science and leadership because I really like the idea of asking a question and being able to develop methods to answer that question instead of just being told the answer.

Sundays at CSG

As you may know, life here at CSG is very busy and occasionally chaotic but something you may be wondering is how we keep a cool head (normally). Well, weekdays are focused on our academics and Saturdays are Field Trip days but Sunday is designate as the rejuvenation day of the week. To relax from all of the schoolwork and energy of the normal school-week we have a full day before the next week starts just to relax and rejuvenate to be fresh for the incoming week. These days prepare us for the hectic week by clearing our heads and relaxing for the incoming challenges of the week.

On Sundays we still have a schedule but it has much more Choice Time, time where we can talk to family and surf the web, and Turtle Time, time where we can relax or do school work, than normal days. Some of us can even go to church in the morning. Along with free time we have PSP, Personal Sustainability Practice, where people do a non-schoolwork or non-internet related activity that they love and that rejuvenates them. Some people dance, some read, and one is even making a cookbook out of Gale the Goddess’s recipes.

Also we have Res Life activities that the Res Life staff plans. A little while back on Easter Sunday they planned a fun little Easter egg scavenger hunt and in the end we got a little prize, candy (don’t tell Gale)! These fun little activities help us ready ourselves for the busy week coming up and are often the highlight of my weeks! Here is a picture of some of us all dressed up for Easter Sunday!

-Jennah

North Yarmouth Academy Service Project

            One of the awesome things about being at CSG is the amazing learning environment that we are immersed in every single day. Today we had the pleasure of sharing that mentality with a great group of fifth grade students at North Yarmouth Academy. We prepared several topics involving marine

science to teach the kids, and it goes without saying that the experience exceeded all of our expectations.

            When we first arrived, there was a sense of community at the school and within the group of students. We immediately started to bond as we played name games and got to know a little bit about each other. After the games and lunch, we broke out the microscopes and plankton for the students to look at. We were pleasantly surprised by the general knowledge of the students. It was really cool to see! Although it was amazing to see how much the kids knew, it was difficult at first for some groups to accommodate their lesson plans to fit such advanced middle school kids. All together, we taught them about different types of plankton, how to use microscopes, and the food chain. We did this through interactive activities and games.
         One of the games that we played was a game about the food chain. Some people were clams, some were otters and some were sharks. This game was to demonstrate how the food chain works. Another game we played was the mighty wind blows. This was a name game that we played when we first got to CSG. It helps to learn things what people in the room have in common with each other. It is a great get to know you game. Also at the end we had the kids draw pictures write poems or songs. I personally wrote a rap about plankton. We wrote about what they looked like, and where you can find them. I personally really loved this because it built a one on one relationship with the kids. I felt very welcomed into the community and like I was part of it. It was really great to see the way the kids interacted with one another. I reminded me of my fifth grade class. Everyone was so friendly and nice to each other, you really got a feel of community. Overall being at North Yarmouth Academy was an amazing experience, and I wish we could go back again.

By: Railey and Nirmala

Preble Street Resource Center

Waking up is never easy for me, I’m a teenager who likes her sleep, and however the promise of Gail’s granola and the scent of fresh-braked bread make the hard day ahead worth it. Today I had the opportunity to meet some incredible people who are able to give the gift of food to people whose trials are much different from my own. Sue Ellen was a kindred spirit who opens her kitchen to hundreds of hungry people three times daily, serving more then 500,000 meals a year. Her dedication and love for the people who come to her was overwhelming.

 She sat some of us down before doors opened for lunch and told us about the people that come to the soup kitchen and why some of them are in the situation that they’re in. When she described to us the many different options she’s able to create from donations alone she exclaimed, “Giving them choices gives them dignity,” something she obviously finds critical. Meeting Sue Ellen and the other volunteer staff at Preble street was an incredibly eye opening experience.

Some of the things we were able to do at Preble Street were organizing produces and boxes, working as severs, cleaning the dishes and grilling garlic bread. Serving required us to give them a certain portion, and to pay attention to what they needed. For example, if one said they were vegetarian, we had to go and ask one of the other workers for the special vegetarian meal. Cleaning dishes required us to stand at a station and when we were handed a plate, we had to place the utensils in the soap bin, and empty the remaining food into a compost bin. Afterwards we placed the plates, cups and/or bowls into their different sectioned crates. Grilling garlic bread required us to withstand high heat.

While doing all of these we were rewarded with sincere “thank you” and warm smiles. That was our reward, and it gave us an amazing feeling. We felt incredibly renewed, and I am glad and honored to say this about all of us. 

By: Leah & Merci

Wolfe's Neck Farm Service Project

                  Today, the CSG girls all participated in helpful tasks around the barn of Wolfe's Neck Farm.  By helping the farm today we, in a sense, helped the community at large by contributing to the progress of sustainable farming. Nothing feels better than lending a helping hand to our neighbors. We took action and left the farm house at around 9:45 this morning, in our muck boots, work gloves, and grubby clothes, ready to go help out with tending the animals and such. When we got there, Kaitlin, a Teen Ag. Coordinator who works at the farm, introduced us to the flow of life in a public farm and what the animals there are used for in the cases of farm business and other purposes. There were numerous jobs that we had planned to accomplish such as cleaning out the chicken coops and empty spaces, transporting hay in wheelbarrows, and moving the bunnies out of the barn out to the designated summer home which required us to move the house they were living in in the barn out and clean out all the excess hay and such.

Within the group, we all split up into teams and groups so that we could distribute the jobs and efficiency of work, occasionally joining other jobs when unoccupied. Overall, we definitely managed to keep ourselves all occupied. Dividing jobs based on volunteering was a good example of community as a cornerstone because we worked together. We shoveled and cleaned out the empty space of the bunnies previous location and wheel-barrowed it out to where the cows were hanging out. Some of us took on other jobs, such as getting the chickens out of the chicken coop and outside, removing the fenced in walls for more work space, mucking out the old hay with pitchforks, shoveling out the hardened excrement and shipping it all out (in multiple trips) by wheelbarrow. Also, we scooped up the loose hay where the horses and cows were and put it in their pins to freshen it up.      

One of the challenges we dealt with today was facing messy conditions such as manure and mud. But, keeping a good attitude while facing such conditions made the work light and extremely fun. While at the farm we were able to spend some time with the goats. Holding the baby goats was also definitely a high point for many. Along with holding baby goats we helped milk the mama goat. This was a learning experience for all of use and was enjoyed by all. It helped us all develop a new sense of gratitude to small scale sustainable farmers. We saw today just a little of the large effort they put forth to make our world a better place. These fun activities were a bit smelly and grubby but the experience of being part of such a lively environment was appreciated greatly. Not only did we help the farm with their work ,but they helped us learn what it means to thrive off a sustainable farm. 

By: Olivia and Kayla

Freeport Historical Society Service Project

            Today we helped out at the Freeport Historical Society. We helped in three different ways. Some of us read an old ship’s log by Captain Charles Small and transcribed it. Some of us took photos of historic properties and homes to update the records. The rest of the group helped by transcribing a list of names from an old quilt. These things helped Freeport Historical Society further organize their historical records for the greater community, and it taught us about what life was like in the past by showing us how people experienced it, who experienced it, and where they lived.

            
Also, we went around the campus and we weeded the gardens, picked up trash, and tended to the compost. All of us live at this little farmhouse so we want to keep it in good shape. This is also helpful for future semesters because we should keep it cleaner than it was before and send it better than we received it.

            All of us were influenced by both community and gratitude. We wanted to help the historical society because it would help other community members and the information might help people in the future. Cleaning up the campus is also part of community because cleaning it up helped the staff, faculty, and future students of CSG by making it a good, clean environment. Also we did it out of gratitude, because Freeport Historical Society gave us a tour in History class and helping them was a way to show our appreciation. It was really rewarding because we got to learn new things. I am sure the things we did today will be very helpful for the Freeport Historical Society and others in the community in the future. 

By: Laurel and Jennah