Jan

Life-Changing Experiences Inspired by School Gardens

by Meredith Mullins on January 17, 2013

Organic school garden and greenhouse inspire life-changing experiences

All Saints’ Day School Organic Garden
© Meredith Mullins

Stand Up for Real Food

Remember the first time you planted a radish seed in elementary school. You were mesmerized as you watched the little patch of loose earth, waiting for that sprout to appear. The few days seemed like an eternity. But, finally, there it was, pushing the earth aside to stretch up toward the sun.

radish sprout, showing life-changing experience of nurturing growth

A Sprout Worth Waiting For
© Thinkstock

For me, at age seven, watching that first little sprout uncurl and straighten up was a life-changing experience. I had actually grown something, nurtured it to life. And I proclaimed, with a certainty not usually found at such a young age, that I was going to be a farmer.

Flash forward to lots of young children having a similar aha moment. Only now, these life-changing experiences are happening in school gardens—where the idea of healthy, organic food takes root; branches out to various parts of an education program; and gains momentum from media headlines:

Michelle Obama is a high-profile champion for this important component of our lives—eating healthfully and staying fit.
Chefs like Alice Waters and Jamie Oliver are leading food revolutions—encouraging the use of fresh, organic ingredients.

Many advocates for healthy eating are charging forward with Jamie Oliver’s battle cry:

Stand up for real food!

These words can inspire an OIC moment. The real OIC revelation is probably not when we acknowledge that healthy eating is a good thing but rather when we make healthy eating a part of our everyday lives. It’s more of an “Oh, I REALLY see” moment or an “Oh, I need to make this a priority” moment . . . all in the name of life-changing goals targeted to health and longevity.

Organic vegetables offering life-changing experiences in health eating

Life-Changing Experiences with Fresh, Organic Vegetables
© Thinkstock

Learning from Dirt, Scraps, Leafy Greens, and Chickens

One elementary school in California is notable for taking a stand for “real food.” The focus on healthy eating at the All Saints’ Day School in Carmel Valley, California, has been seamlessly integrated into the curriculum . . . and into the school lunch program.

The school is one of the first in the country to serve a 100% organic lunch (thanks to their partnership with a nearby organic farm). They have also launched a school garden—something that’s fun for students and also inspires integrated learning:

In science, students learn about plant life cycles. They then follow the cycles first-hand as they prepare the garden beds, plant seeds, tend seedlings, provide water and nourishment for the soil, protect plants from disease and pests, and harvest when the vegetables are ready.

Similarly, as they take care of a flock of chickens and collect fresh eggs from the hen house, they experience animal life cycles that connect to science concepts they are learning.

Students learn the value of recycling when they collect food scraps from classroom snacks and the leftovers from the lunch program. This material is then composted for use in the school garden. On average, the students recover 11 pounds of food scraps per week.

In art class, students are often inspired by the garden. They paint wooden panels for the sides of the plant beds and build scarecrow sculptures that shimmer in the sun.

An art project scarecrow in an organic school garden inspires life lessons for students

Candace the Sculpted Scarecrow
© Meredith Mullins

Health and nutrition concepts are integrated when students, who harvest the food from the garden and from the fruit trees, then prepare lunch delectables like fresh salads, kale and potato soup, and applesauce.

The students also learn to give back to the community, as good citizens, when they prepare food baskets full of fresh produce and herbs from the garden for special occasions for local charities.

Mother Nature Delivers Life Lessons

A few days ago when I visited the garden, a rare frost for this part of the state had covered everything with a sparkly dusting of white. The plants that were once perky and warmed by the sun were now a little droopy. They looked decidedly cold.

I asked Garden Director and teacher Jan White if the students would be disappointed. “Maybe,” she said, “But they will learn an important life lesson: Mother Nature is always in charge.”

Director of All Saints' Day School garden provides life-changing experiences for students growing organic foods

Garden Director Jan White
© Meredith Mullins

The students at this California school certainly learn about Mother Nature, but they also have life-changing experiences as they follow the life cycles of plants and animals and benefit from the fruits (and vegetables) of their labor. They are standing up for real food in the best possible way—in their academic curriculum and in their daily healthy eating habits.

To see more school gardens in action, visit Life Lab and School Gardens.

See Jamie Oliver’s TED Prize wish: Teach Every Child About Food

Comment on this post below, or inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Meredith Mullins Comments

Making a Difference

Jan

Funky Furniture Maker Nails The Creative Process

by Janine Boylan on January 14, 2013

Apple cabinet, showing imaginative result of the creative process

Apple cabinet © Straight Line Design

Judson Beaumont Thinks Outside the Box

Wooden furniture. It is solid, smooth, rigid. It may have level-straight lines or gently carved curves.

An inner voice reasons: There are limits to what you can build with wood, right?

Not according to Judson Beaumont. In fact, it appears that you can take a bite right out of his funky furniture.

Beaumont, owner and designer of playfully-named Straight Line Design, oozes with creative thinking. He learned early in his experience that you don’t have to do something just because it has always been done that way. Describing his creative process, he says, “I love it when someone tells me that ‘You cannot build that’ or ‘No one would want that.’ These words only encourage me more.”

His imaginative furniture certainly defies expectations, and it appears to defy physics.

But there are things you can’t do with wood. For example, everyone knows you can’t fold solid wood like an accordion.

Accordion cabinet, showing imaginative result of the creative process

Accordion cabinet © Straight Line Design

Oh, I see. It looks like you can.

Beaumont’s creative process begins simply with this: question the ordinary. While he ensures that each of his pieces is functional and may be based on some elements of tradition, he certainly is not bound by what has been done before.

Becoming a master of a craft is no small task, but pushing the limits to become uniquely creative takes his skill to a new level.

Ha! A new level! That sounds like furniture levitates or something!

Little Black Dresser, showing imaginative result of the creative process

Little Black Dresser © Straight Line Design

Oh, I see. It does. This Little Black Dresser seems to hang in space.

Beaumont had to learn to create furniture with dove joints and perfectly fitting pieces. But then he challenged himself to try unconventional, unexpected angles and figured out how to make a wooden cabinet appear to bend, fold, or explode.

Explode?

Boom Cabinet, showing imaginative result of the creative process

Boom Cabinet © Straight Line Design

Oh! I see. Cabinets can explode!

Beaumont tells more about his creative process, “My rule is: if you can draw and design it, you can build it.” And he has. His clever sketch became a canned bench.

Peel furniture sketch, showing role of design in the creative process

Peel furniture sketch © Straight Line Design

Canned bench, showing imaginative result of the creative process

Canned bench © Straight Line Design

Every one of Beaumont’s designs is functional. And beautiful. That’s what makes them doubly inspirational.

Furniture is functional. And solid. I know that furniture is solid.

Hollow chair, showing imaginative result of the creative process

Hollow chair © Straight Line Design

Hollow chair and friend © Straight Line Design

Oh, come on. How is hollow furniture possible?

Beaumont’s mantra for getting creative ideas: “Be influenced and inspired by the norm, and then challenge it, change it, melt it, stretch it, alter it for the better.”

Well, no matter what you do to it, one thing is certain: you can keep furniture in the house.

Bad Table, showing imaginative result of the creative process

Bad Table © Straight Line Design

Oh, I SEE! This Bad Table has to stay outside!

OIC that imaginative results come from a creative process that knows no limits.

What funky furniture would you have Beaumont design for you? Leave a comment below!

VIA Laughing Squid

Inspire insight with your own OIC Moment here.

Janine Boylan 3 Comments

The World's Art & Design

Jan

Creative Inspiration Flows In Underwater Photographs

by Meredith Mullins on January 10, 2013

creative inspiration from curious jacks over the sand

Artistic Expression from Down Deep

I’ve had this OIC Moment before. A déjà vu of the deep—from growing up with Jacques Cousteau, learning life lessons from Nemo, and visiting aquariums all over the world. The beauty and intrigue of the ocean world is never-ending.

But as I stood in front of the underwater photographs in an exhibit at the Center for Photographic Art in California, I was mesmerized.

These images showed me that an OIC Moment can come again and again. Something familiar, something seen before can always be seen in a new light, with new eyes. Viewing mysterious underwater images that capture the vastness of our planet can be a powerful creative inspiration.

Creative inspiration from a school of curious jack fish

Diving into the Images

I lost myself in these images, especially the photos (above) of the Curious Jacks. Suddenly, these fish became personalities. Where were they going? What were they thinking? Who, exactly, were they?

Some looked decidedly grumpy.

Some looked mean.

Some looked determined (places to go and people to see).

Some looked flirtatious.

Some looked detached . . . too cool for school (that’s a fish joke).

Some looked bemused.

Some looked, well, curious.

The Jack groups seemed a bit disordered. They were all headed in a different direction, either fiercely independent or in need of a little leadership. I began to imagine their story:

Was it the lobby of an ocean convention center as strangers converged from far corners of the world?

Or, was it a “city” street where each individual carries his own story or follows her own path?

Or, could it be the moments before a school picture, before the students are ordered into neat rows by a bossy yearbook editor?

What do you see?

How the Photographers Capture the Moment

California photographers Scott Campbell and Robin V. Robinson captured underwater moments that most people do not have the opportunity to experience. Scott’s ability to hold his breath for up to seven minutes allows him to photograph underwater life without the interference of SCUBA equipment.

creative inspiration from a diver alone with a school of fish

Robin loves the sense of relaxation during a dive. “Fish don’t have cell phones or email,” she says. “I never feel more present than underwater.” She also welcomes a sense of not knowing what is “out there.”

They both take their creative inspiration from the freedom they feel while underwater and the ability to explore the deepest parts of themselves while they are alone in the vast expanse of the deep.

creative inspiration from a school of barracuda

The Spell of the Sea

Scott and Robin’s talent and technical skills in photographing underwater let us feel the quiet, the peace, and the alien quality of the deep. As Jacques Cousteau said:

“The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever.”

Lose yourself, as I did, in these photographs. Create your own imaginative stories about life in the underwater world. And may you feel the same inspiration and freedom that these photographers felt as they captured this wondrous world.

Cousteau quote VIA Brainy Quotes