Pond Gap Land Scouts

Cutting greens at Pond Gap Elementary School, Knoxville, TN

This is the second year of Land Scouts at Pond Gap Elementary School in Knoxville, TN. I've had the pleasure of working first with Matt Callo and now with Elias Attea, both AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteers through Pellissippi State Community College's Service Learning program. Both have given good feedback on how the Scouts work and can be improved to serve Pond Gap's after school program. Below are badges now en route to Attea's troop.

From back to front: Decomposition, Digestion,
Collection, Observation, and Propagation

If you're interested in hosting a troop or using the Land Scouts with an existing group I want to help that happen. In addition to the newly launched Land Scout Guide Book, there's a curricular outline of all ten core values and how to teach them with young people. You can download a free copy of the Guide Book here. It explains how to get started hosting a troop and earning the Observation badge. The rest of the badges and activities are spelled out in the aforementioned outline. It's still a rough draft and not yet published, please email me if you'd like a copy of it.

Go Forth

Bright chickweed springs up in early spring and winter.

As Urban Land Scouts, we build on a foundation of profound and active observation. All scouts must begin with this practice and we are wise if we return to it seasonally. The shift in temperature and daylight sends most plants into winter dormancy and allows for a new group of plants to appear. If you have not already earned your first Urban Land Scout badge, this is your call to do so. If you have, consider this a timely refresher.

Here in East Tennessee, and in the urban heat sink of Knoxville, it's not yet bitter cold winter, but all the leaves have fallen. The absence of canopy shade combined with our the semi-mild temperatures of this area has allowed for a winter flush of low-lying annuals, like chickweed and dead nettle, to spring up. Or to be revealed. At left is a photo of some chickweed, a staple of edible foraging, at Ijams Nature Center in South Knoxville. You can recognize it by it's bright green color and pointed heart-shaped leaves. Chickweed will also produce small white flowers although I anticipate these might not make it that far. The toothed leaf in the top half of the picture also grows in abundance at Ijams, but I don't know it. Anyone familiar with this plant?

Here's another pleasant surprise with the absence of deciduous foliage: the punky pink and purple arch of wild raspberry canes.  They are more strikingly colored than this photo represents. Keep an eye for them at the edges of fields and forests and make plans to return to them in the mid to late summer.

If you haven't already, commit to using this season to earning your Observation badge. Wherever you are-- bundle up, take a pen and paper or notebook and walk somewhere you've never been before. Go slowly and take notes. Draw pictures (or take photos to draw pictures from in the warmth of your home) and reflect on your observations. Send in your notes, drawings, or other observations to passage (at) urbanlandscouts (dot) com and earn your first (of many) Urban Land Scout badges.

Beardsley Camp Overview

Urban Land Scout campers working on their books and buttons

Hello, hello,

Thanks to all our friends and sponsors for your generous support of Urban Land Scout camp. We met and surpassed our fundraising goal. Hooray! Not only were we able to offer camp for free to campers and parents, but we have enough money left over that we’ll be looking into similar fall programming as well.

We had eight campers from all corners of Knoxville. As you may or may not know, our original plan was to offer the camp to students at nearby Title I schools (where a high percentage of students receive free and reduced lunches). I had naively assumed that if we created a quality program and made it free, people would come running. Not so. Additionally, we were late getting our application materials into Knox County schools. As a result, our initial enrollment numbers were very low. In order to find more campers, we opened up the application process to any rising 5th, 6th, or 7th grader in Knox County. The children and parents who found us were great and we had a wonderful time. We were also blessed with great leadership in the form of my co-counselor, Kat Raese and our super-volunteer Brian Sohn.

Brian and Luke play a balancing game

Each morning we had breakfast (provided by Knox County) and then morning circle where we talked about the upcoming day and played games. Following morning circle, we helped out with some of the easier farm chores at Beardsley. Favorite chores included harvesting produce for Beardsley to donate and checking under the chickens to see if there were any eggs.

After chores, we got down to the business of earning our Urban Land Scout badges. During the course of the week we explored the park, mapped our homes, oriented ourselves with compasses, made and threw seed balls, collected wild edible plants, transplanted Holy Basil, made herb and lemonade popsicles, took herb clippings to root, and started seeds in the greenhouse. Most campers cited “learning about edible and useful plants” as their favorite activity. Seed collection was also a big hit. Thanks to a partnership with Community Television Knoxville, we were able to borrow flip video cameras for peer interviews. I hope to edit this footage together for a piece that will air on CTVK in the future.

Seeds ready for next year's planting

We wrapped up the day with lunches donated by the Tomato Head, a local restaurant known for its fresh and wholesome ingredients. Cruze Dairy Farm provided chocolate milk as a special treat on the last day. It was great to sit down, give thanks, and share a filling meal in the shade of a large oak tree. I think most of us-- counselors and campers -- went home every day and took a short nap. We were lucky in that the intense heat of the summer held off for the first three days. After that we stayed cool with water bottles, sun hats, and the occasional blast from the hose.

As I mentioned above, I hope to partner with area youth groups and communities to offer similar Urban Land Scout programming this coming fall. If you know of any communities in Knox County who might like to host Urban Land Scouts or if you would like to volunteer, please be in touch. Thanks again for your support of this project.

You can see photos from the camp here.

Urban Land Scout Camp - Day 5

Packaging seeds collected throughout the farm.

You can see more images from Urban Land Scout Camp here.

Urban Land Scout Camp - Day 4

Someone is super excited to add herbs to our lemonade popsicles.

Urban Land Scout Camp - Day 3

Thanks to Jacob Stanley for introducing this game.

Urban Land Scout Camp - Day 2

 

See more photos from Urban Land Scout camp on my flickr stream here.

Urban Land Scout Camp @ BCF - Day 1

Filling watering cans from the rainwater catchment

Urban Land Scout Camp open to all Knox County students

Hello, hello. We've decided to open up our applicant pool for Urban Land Scout Camp to any students living in Knox County who are going into 5th, 6th, or 7th grade. We are also extending our sign-up deadline to June 16th (the same day as the Camp Open House at Beardsley Farm). Please help us spread the word!

You can download an application here to give to potential campers. You can also share that link with this shortened URL: tinyurl.com/ULScampApp .

In case you need a reminder here's a brief summary of the camp:

• Camp is available at no cost to campers and parents/guardians
• Open to students going into 5th, 6th, and 7th grade
• Camp will run for three one-week sessions, Monday through Friday, 7:30 am - 12:30 pm:
  
  Session I July 11th-15th    Session II July 18th-22nd    Session III July 25th-29th
• We will serve breakfast, lunch, and snack
• Parents/guardians must transport campers to and from Beardsley Farm (in Mechanicsville)
• We will be outdoors most of the time working on earning Urban Land Scout badges, helping with farm chores, and other fun activities

Parents and guardians with questions can be in touch with me (Katie) by phone (235-1730) or by email (passage @ urbanlandscouts . com). Thanks!

Fundraising for Urban Land Scout Camp!

If you missed the earlier post on Urban Land Scout Camp, here's the skinny: We hope to host a free Urban Land Scout day camp at Beardsley Community Farm this summer. In order to make the camp free for our campers, we need to raise money now. That's where you come in.

We're hosting a fundraiser this Sunday, May 15th, from 6-9 pm at the Birdhouse, 800 N. 4th Ave. We're asking for a suggested donation of $5 - 10. We'll have beer, snacks, and music by Joseph Gillenwater and Emily Robinson. You can learn more about the camp, why it's a good project to support, and other ways you can get involved...all while enjoying cold beverages and fine company. Sadly, there is not yet a badge for drinking nice beer and eating snacks. Please help us spread the word. We don't want any beer left over.

If you can't make the fundraiser, you can always donate on line with with handy paypal button

...or send your tax deductible donation to:

Schools of Influence Education Foundation
Attn: Urban Land Scout Camp
201 Campus Ln.
Knoxville, TN 37918

Hope to see you all on Sunday!