Urban Farming 101 Workshop: Supporting Student Learning in the Garden

This session of our Urban Farming 101 series of workshops is designed for school and community gardeners, but the information will be useful to those at any site that engages learners. The content focuses on urban environments, but many of the concepts are applicable to gardens anywhere.

This workshop is offered in partnership with New York Agriculture in the Classroom. Qualifying teachers can earn CTLE credit for participation.

Presenters:

• Adam Walker, Programs Manager for The Battery Conservancy. Adam directs the park's school and public program offerings and manages the educational urban farm and native plant forest farm. His career in environmental education has taken him across the country and included work in science classrooms, botanical gardens, production agriculture fields, and forest land. He received a Master of Environmental Management degree from the Yale School of the Environment, and is driven by the goal of strengthening place-based community networks to promote environmental justice and ecological health.
• Brittany Hoover, Urban Agriculture Education Specialist for Cornell CALS. Brittany serves as the Urban Agriculture Education Specialist with New York Agriculture in the Classroom, an outreach program of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell. With her role based in New York City, Brittany supports PreK-12 teachers by providing resources and facilitating workshops to empower teachers to integrate food and agriculture concepts into their core curriculum.

Please note that the in-person sessions of this workshop will be slightly different from the virtual Garden Design Principles to Support Student Learning webinar happening on Wednesday, June 5th The virtual session will focus more on physical site design and setup, while the in-person workshops will dive deeper into specific examples and teaching demonstrations building off the design principles noted in the webinar. The virtual and in-person sessions are designed as complements to one another, but you're welcome to only attend a single session if you like.

The Supporting Student Learning workshop will help you to:

• Improve accessibility and engagement across your garden spaces through simple design adjustments
• Simplify and streamline group management in the garden
• Create self-directed stations for students
• Expand the variety of activities offered in your garden space
• Access curriculum resources and teaching support through NY Ag in the Classroom

Tickets are free but required. To begin, tickets are reserved for NYC DOE teachers and NYCHA residents; please select the appropriate ticket group when registering (on the Monday before a workshop, any unclaimed tickets remaining in reserve will be released to the general public). We offer multiple events of the same workshop each month, so if one is full please check for other available dates. If you are a DOE teacher or NYCHA resident and can't find available tickets, please reach out to us at [email protected] so we can work with you to find a solution. If you don't have a ticket but would still like to attend, you're welcome to drop in at the start of the workshop and if we have space we will include you; however, space is not guaranteed.

Location: Meet at the entrance to The Battery Urban Farm, marked on this map. Please note that Maps applications often misplace the farm entrance, so you should use these coordinates to help bring you to the meeting spot. Please also note that the northern side of the park is currently under construction, so you will need to enter the park along State Street (the map linked above outlines areas blocked off by construction).

What to bring: Please wear closed-toe shoes and any layers and sun protection you will need to be comfortable outside for the event. This program will occur light rain or shine; in the event of inclement weather, participants will be e-mailed in advance with notice of any changes.

COVID-19 Policy for Events:

1. We encourage any event participants that are not vaccinated against COVID-19 to please wear a mask while participating in our public programs.
2. We ask that participants stay home if feeling sick or if they've had a known COVID-19 exposure in the last 5 days.

Our Urban Farming 101 series of workshops features both virtual and in-person offerings each month throughout the season, covering the following topics:

• March: Crop Planning
• April: Soil & Seed Starting
• May: Plant Biology & Propagation
• June: Supporting Student Learning in the Garden
• July: Integrated Pest Management
• August: Native Plants and Wildlife Habitats
• September: Seed Saving
• October: Season Extension and Winter Growing

You can follow our Eventbrite page to receive an update each time a new workshop is available for registration.

This event and all other free programming is funded by donations to The Battery Conservancy. Donate here!

Questions? Email [email protected]

Host or Publisher The Battery Conservancy