Vision

Our vision was to transform an underused enclosed courtyard space into a outdoor classroom where students actively engage in growing food, water conservation, learning about ecology and food security, and stewarding natural spaces.

Action

We activated an outdoor classroom for students to connect with growing food and nature-based education at North Albion Collegiate Institute. Through collaboration between students, faculty and local urban farm, Zawadi Farm, we built an engaging outdoor space that blends sustainable student-driven design and low-maintenance native and edible plant landscaping that will be used for educational opportunities and nature connection. We installed a rain water barrel with the garden club, a group of grade 10 students, who got to experience problem solving and assembly of the rain water collection system that is now collecting water from eaves installed on the shed. The garden club is made up of predominantly newcomers to Canada, who also helped vision the space, including what foods to grow to support their lunch-salad program and how to make the space a refuge for student mental health. We worked with two grade 11 science classes over 2 workdays. Students engaged in designing the space, filling garden beds, planting native species, growing vegetables for harvest, and learning the science behind how plants uptake nutrients from the soil, as well as learning about water conservation, ecosystem roles, food security and urban agriculture and climate change. Students took on daily watering and monitoring of the food crops. Harvest will take place in mid-June.