Hello Farm Friends and Family!
I want to take this week’s edition of the newsletter to introduce myself and to write to you about a new and exciting opportunity coming up very soon! My name is Chris, and this season I’ve been serving our community as the Education Program Director for Sweetwater Farm. I am so excited to be a greater influence in the farm’s educational programming, and boy do I have some really cool stuff planned for Tampa Bay’s students. Just next week (March 10) we will be starting a Farm Camp right here on our farm! We’ve been designing our camp with the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards for Science and Project WILD, an outdoor nationwide curriculum for K-12.
Farm camp is a unique opportunity in the state of Florida, that allows campers to be a part of the great outdoors, learning about sustainable agriculture and where food comes from. Campers will be learning about plant biology, nutrition, and how to maintain an organic garden of several different foods! Kids will have a chance to explore different species of plants on the cellular level with iPad microscopes, learning what healthy plants look like on a cellular level, versus conventionally grown food. We’ll also be playing a number of educational games, working on upcycled art projects, learning about food preservation and canning, and a whole host of other activities.
Parents, it’s not too late to sign up your children! We’re still accepting applications for the Spring camp dates (March 10-14 and March 17-21), and we will also be running camp over Summer and Winter Breaks, too. I am especially excited to test out our new iPad field microscopes with the kids, I really think it will open their eyes to the world around them! This will also be a great opportunity for your children to get some exercise, make new friends, and learn about subjects covered at their school in a very concrete way!
Also, because we will be using iPads, I will be posting videos from our days lessons and adventures and posting them to our Facebook (with permission). That way, parents can keep up at home and see what their children are learning about in a very transparent way.
I am so, so very excited to get camp up and running. I hope to see you there!
Chris Hawthorne