Mary Cole Mello
NORTHFIELD — On Tuesday, May 27, the Northfield Elementary School gym became the Student Showcase for Vermont Food Systems, celebrating a month-long study of climate resilience and food systems with families and community members.
About 150 people gathered to hear presentations and view displays created by 71 fourth graders from Northfield, Barre Town, Berlin, Washington, and Braintree. The students had studied agriculture and climate change and this was the culmination of their work.
As part of the study, the students visited local farms. According to Ari Lattanzi of the Make Do Farm in Randolph, “The field trip essentially gave me 30 helpers who dug soil samples and shared soil observations from a huge swath of the farm. It was awesome to see students making the connection between the soil texture and color and the vegetation and potential soil improvement strategies.”
Northfield teacher Susie Maxham summed up the study and the showcase: “In a word … amazing … Watching them explain what happened to the plants as they went through various environments was awe inspiring. … They got it! We all have to take care of our environment.”
Fourth grader Miya Vilbrin’s project addressed the threat of a diminishing water supply. “We were experimenting with plants in places that don’t have much rain. The plants got all straggly when they weren’t watered. Plants need water.”
Ella Fifield noted that Arizona didn’t have enough water and Kamden Doney mentioned that wild fires in California are affecting the water supply.
“The wildfires burn so hot that they evaporate any water near them,” Doney explained. “The wildfires also create a lot of ash, which can end up in water sources … and that (dirty) water will need to be filtered more.”
Fifield had created a simulated greenhouse to demonstrate how full-size greenhouses trap heat for the plants.
“We put our plant in a plastic bag. We noticed that the soil was getting hot and saw water drops on the bag so we knew it was getting humid,” Fifield said.
The greenhouse experiment helped students better understand how the earth’s atmosphere can trap heat like the glass of a greenhouse and that if it traps too much heat, the climate is affected.
It wasn’t all about presentations. There was also a farm-to-table dinner, free for everyone.
“I loved the food,” said Kamden Doney, “It was so good.”
The menu included beef stew, cornbread, salad, celeriac dip with carrots, and strawberry shortcake — all from local sources including Royal Butcher, Glinnis Hill Farm, Roger’s Farmstead, and Drift Farmstead.
Misse Axelrod, owner of the Driftwood Homestead in Roxbury, was the guiding force behind the Central Vermont Student Showcase. Axelrod is a consultant for area schools and works with Northfield Elementary year-long; and she is also founder of the Farm and Forest School in Roxbury.
Northfield Elementary School Principal Denise Russell said she values the long-term relationship the school has had with Axelrod.
“It’s experiential learning,” she said. “It’s relevant. It’s about healthy lifestyles and making good choices about food. We’re living in a prepackaged, lunchables, snacks-in-a-bag society and this (curriculum) is about digging potatoes and learning where your food comes from.”
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