Service Learning
Where Sustainability Meets Phyiscal & Health Education (PHE) and Outdoor Learning
Mikey Ferraris, MS/HS PHE
Finding creative solutions to challenges transforms how we understand and interact with our environment.
This is not only a statement of inquiry to challenge the way students think about nutrition and sustainability, but a call to action to find practical ways to serve our community.
This is not your typical PHE class.
Using the Inspire Citizens ‘Impact to Empathy’ framework, students are inquiring to care, be aware, be able, and create meaningful impact. They are posed conceptual questions to inspire thinking, and learning through inquiry takes place. Why should students care about food inequality? Where can they find information about solving these problems? How can they use their skills and relationships to their environment to create solutions? Which action can make a difference for someone who may be in less fortunate shoes?
Our students, with the help of the LCS Makerspace team, were able to put some tools to use to recycle old water bottles into planting boxes. Once the recycled containers were repurposed, cut to size, and drilled for drainage, it was time to head to the compost heap. Here, the students learnt to mix nutrient-dense compost with fertile soil and potting soil, offering the seedlings the perfect conditions to thrive under the Ghanaian sun.
The work is not over.
The students must check on their kale, lettuce, tomato, aubergine, and red pepper seedlings daily and water them when need be, an excellent demonstration of our attitudes to learning (ATL) focus of self-management. It is an absolute joy walking past my students on campus as they give me live updates of how much their seedling has ‘grown.’
This unit has more meaning than simply planting seedlings. It is inspiring a generation of students to identify problems, learn practical skills, and serve the communities they live in. Yes, the students will still learn about macro and micro nutrients. Yes, they will learn about different diets, calories, and healthy meals, but the dirty hands on learning and seeing community members benefit from their produce will be something they will remember forever.
Special thanks to Shannon Kerry, Ann Manu, and Mawuli Tetteh for supporting us on this journey.
Lincoln Community School
#126/21 Reindolf Road
Abelemkpe, Accra
Ghana, West Africa
+233 302 218 100
Mailing Address
PMB CT 354, Cantonments
Accra, Ghana
