Woohoo! Lets reminisce on the first time we met Martha, our beloved small organic farm owner. For me this was the first time I ever stepped foot on any organic farm, let alone one walking distance from a University. To be completely honest I was expecting a traditional farm with perhaps extra vegetation. When we finally arrived at her farm I was surprised upon the realization that there were no chickens running around or farm dogs and cats. Her farm was small, dirty, scattered, and different. Of course, after being shown around more and actually getting the opportunity to volunteer there, I soon realized how important this small, dirty, scattered farm really is.

Of course, a spontaneous task was assigned! Of course we all agreed we would be happy to help her. This first visit included gathering squash for the farmers market. Half of us were scouters looking for squash and cutting them off by the stem. The other half os us resembled an assembly line and passed down the squash to the be sorted in an orderly fashion.

Posted By: Alexa Aleman-Pastor

Going on a hike was the first official field trip we took as a class. We went to Mount Nemo Conservation Area located in Burlington, Ontario. Doing this was a great way to introduce the outdoors to all of us. It was a first hand experience to interact with nature together. This may not have been my first time being here but regardless, hikes are always enjoyable. Hiking is done for many purposes. For example, it could be for the reason of exercising, meditating, observing plants and animals, and/or exploring.

I remember about halfway into our hike we realized that we didn’t have much time left to complete the full 5 km. It was around this point when we decided to pick up the pace while being careful with the obstacles along the way. For example, there were large roots and steep slopes as well as narrow passageways between rock. It was incredibly hot that day and on top of physical activity, I think it’s safe to say we all broke a sweat (or two).

Posted By: Alexa Aleman-Pastor

During one of our Outdoor School classes we had the opportunity to participate in a workshop ran by Chris Earley. The workshop took place at the J.C Taylor Nature centre, in the Arboretum. We learned about bird calls and participated in some hands on activities, involving bird tagging.

After spending some time inside learning the basics about birds, we headed outside to set up some ground traps in the hopes of catching a bird. However, after waiting for a good 15 minutes we were met with empty traps.

With hope starting to dwindle we switched our sights from catching and tagging to birding. However, we decided to check the traps once more.

To our surprise we found a small Dark-eyed Junco trying to escape from one of the ground traps.

We were directed back into the nature centre, where Chris taught us how to properly tag the Dark-eyed Junco, and how to properly record the physical description of the bird – to input into the online data base.

Finally, our very own Jaedyn completed the honourable task of releasing our Junco ! 🙂

Written by: Brett Studden & Narda D’uniam.

On October 31st, the Outdoor School class headed across Gordon to the Bovey Greenhouse. We’ve seen some pretty incredible things throughout the semester, but nothing quite like the Bovey Greenhouse.

We started out in a massive room filled with large tanks. It looked futuristic, with different bright lights and metallic walls, and Rodger explained to us that this was the area in which they did research for organizations like NASA! There were several different stations set up in which they were experimenting with different growing conditions, and their ultimate goal is to be able to grow in space.

When we walked into the next room, Rodger showed us an example of how they can use light to grow plants in different ways. He showed us lettuce grown under different wavelengths of light, and each sample looked totally different! One was a dark green, one was lighter and the last one was purple. They didn’t just look different, Rodger explained that they actually all have distinct tastes. This was so interesting, because it shows the level of control humans can have over food, and it was a large contrast from the farm and how Martha grows her plants.

Next, we moved into a room that was filled with tiny samples of plants. One entire wall was filled entirely with shelves of plants! In this area, the plants are grown from tiny cells or sections, and the wall displayed the plants in all of their different stages of life.

We also got to see a greenhouse where people can conduct research projects. There were plants being grown as medical treatments, and even for materials such as rubber. Scientists can conduct research in there, and they can take their results back to the companies they are working for and determine whether using that plant is viable.

Finally, we arrived in my favourite room. It was a large, high ceilinged greenhouse filled to the brim with tropical plants. We saw everything from pineapples to cactuses, there was even a little pond with fish swimming around! Many of the plants I’d never even seen before. I had no idea that this place even existed, let alone that it was open to students. People can come inside whenever they want and eat their lunch, study, or just be with nature. This is such an amazing resource to students and staff, because it is so beneficial to be in green spaces, especially in the cold Canadian winter.