Aquaponics, Cape Eleuthera Institute, Uncategorized

Human Ecology Intensives

During kayak rotations this term, students had the chance to do what we call an ‘Intensive’ for Human Ecology class. Students focused on one project to develop the viable solutions, skills, and knowledge that they need to take home with them. The three intensives included: Plastics and Marine Pollution, Aquaponics, and Sustainable Agriculture.

In Plastics, the students conducted beach plastic surveys to determine how much micro and macro plastic has washed up onshore different beaches of Eleuthera. The Aquaponics team learned more about the system located at CEI and built their own ‘backyard aquaponics’ model. The Sustainable Agriculture group worked on The Island School farm and designed their own grow bed and ‘herb spiral’. Check out a couple of the videos that the students created about their experience and the project they worked on!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVwtNMZq0x4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E5pRIcMSso

Deep Creek Middle School

DCMS Students Head to Camp this Summer!

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IS alumnus Tom McDonough (S’08) was a counselor to DCMS student Lance Pelecanos at Camp Dudley in Summer 2012.

Every summer, a few lucky Deep Creek Middle School students have the opportunity to attend summer camp in the states and Canada. This year, students will spend the summer at Camp Chewonki in Wiscasset, Maine and Camp Deerwood in Holderness, New Hampshire.

Part of what makes these experiences possible for the DCMS kids is help from Island School alumni families. If you are interested in helping or finding out more about our summer camp program, please email alumni@islandschool.org.

Student Update

Student Update May 15, 2013

Yesterday was beautifully sunny day. After our run-swim and breakfast, we all met with our research groups to start compiling and analyzing our results to present on Parent’s Weekend.

The afternoon was especially exciting because we had a couple hours to brainstorm for our final Human Eco projects. We used “open space technology” which basically means that we try and inspire creativity in a casual, conversational setting. We split up into conversation groups around campus that had themes such as: food, waste, water, energy, awareness, etc. Students and teachers alike spent time throwing ideas out there and getting closer to a specific problem that they want to focus on for their project. The goal of the day was not to come up with any solutions, but to identify a specific problem that they feel passionate about addressing, and find other students who share the same interests. Exiting ideas about solutions were also being discussed just because people couldn’t wait to get started. Some problems that were picked were: lack of pollinators on Eleuthera (bees), imported food, overfishing of conch, lack of activities for Deep Creek kids, plastic pollution, and more.

We finished Human Eco a little early due to people’s enthusiasm, so we got to finish our dorm deep cleans with exploration time left in the afternoon. After dinner, we had a night class and started to plan our Art Show for Parent’s Weekend. We voted for two curators (congrats Danny and Noelle!) to be the creative directors and help lead the process. I am confident that they will do a fantastic job.

This morning we woke up to a slightly grey, windy day. Swim track had an awesome morning, however, because we swam in current cut down by the marina. We did laps, first swimming with the current, and once we got to the bridge we turned around and pushed against the current all the way back to the start. We saw a baby nurse shark, a barracuda, and lots of other fish.

Chef Emery leaves tomorrow, who has provided delicious food for The Island School for a number of semesters. He was a student here himself, and we have many memories of hanging out with him in the kitchen, hearing his exciting dinner announcements at circle, and of course eating his food. He will be terribly missed, but we are wishing him goof luck in his travels!

Deep Creek Middle School

Class Boat Ride with Ms. Alison Derrick on Layla

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by Ashley Mackey, Dashae Clarke, and Trevonya Pinder (Grade 7)

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Our class received the least number of yellow cards than any other DCMS class, and we were able to go on a boat ride! At Deep Creek Middle School, you get yellow cards for doing something bad like forgetting homework or being out of uniform. We were the best class of the quarter and Ms. Paul says we are the best class in the history of DCMS!

The boat that belonged to Ms. Allison, was a big and bronze goldfish. It was named Layla, and moved very fast. The name Layla came from a song that Ms. Allison’s husband liked. There was a chair inside, a TV, and four bedrooms. The captain was up on top and he had a GPS so he wouldn’t get lost. We were also able to look at how deep the water was by using the instruments, and we were able to see how they use the boat to fish. It was nothing like we expected. It was much better! It was an adventure! We were excited! Ashton caught a big yellow-fin grouper! At the end, the boat drove to the cape and we went back to school.  We hope that we will have a chance to go again sometime.

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Student Update

Student Update May 13, 2013

On Saturday, we had classes in the morning, and enjoyed some fun activities in the afternoon like deep-sea fishing, free diving, and making a bottle wall. That night, all of Island School Spring ’13 was reunited! K3 and K4 came home from their trips, marking the end of kayak rotations. It was a little overwhelming to suddenly go from 12 girls in the dorm to 24, but after the hugging and screaming frenzy was over, everyone had a really nice time catching up with friends about the past week. At dinner circle, I looked around at our big complete circle, heard the count off end at 48, and I couldn’t help but smiling. I didn’t realize how much I missed our whole community and I felt a real sense of love for it at that moment. After dinner that night, we had a fun game of sardines followed by delicious ice cream sundaes and an outdoor movie screening of National Treasure. The next day was Sunday, and everyone enjoyed a well-deserved day off. In the spirit of Mother’s Day, we let the kitchen ladies have the day off and a bunch of students helped Scotty and Taylor cook brunch for everyone. We did this on Easter, too, because we feel the kitchen ladies deserve it and we always have a blast cooking anyways.

All the students had a nice time getting five minutes to call home for Mother’s Day. To all the moms reading this: thank you for having the courage to send your kids here, for raising these wonderful students that I spend every day with, and for giving us the opportunity of a lifetime. I promise you will love what we will bring back home. We love you!

The rest of the Sunday was filled with exploration and cooking dinner for those who wanted to help out. In study hours we got some work done, read Omeros, did some research, and started to outline our analytical essays that are due to wrap up our tourism unit. This morning we woke up and went for a run-swim, which we haven’t done in a while. My group swam through current cut (against the current!) and had a great workout. Today consists of research and brainstorming for our final Human Eco projects!

 

Deep Creek Middle School

DCMS Early Act Service Club Cleans Ocean Hole Park for Earth Day

The Early Act students of DCMS have committed to doing a community clean-up in each of the settlements in South Eleuthera. Last weekend, the group did an extra special cleaning of The Ocean Hole Park in honor of Earth Day. The park, famous for its blue hole, was having a fair that evening. Students cleaned the paths and bushes of trash before realizing that there was a lot of floating debris in the actual blue hole. Not to be deterred, seven students jumped in fully clothed and recovered 2 bags of Styrofoam, miscellaneous plastic bags, a sinking kayak and chunks of wood!

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Uncategorized

Former Island School Literature Fellow Continues to Use the Harkness Table

As all Island School alumni can attest, discussions around the Harkness table played a major role in their education during their semester. A former Island School Literature Teaching Fellow, Ellie Moore, currently teaches at the Alzar School, a semester program in Cascade, Idaho. She demonstrated the collaboration between Math and English for her students by designing, building, and then finally using their own Harkness table. Read more about their process on their blog.

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Student Update, Uncategorized

Student Update May 9, 2013 (a little late!)

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The screams and squeals that echoed around campus marked K3 ‘s return home last night. The reunion was sweet but short-lived, however, for they depart once again this morning for their Down Island Trips. K1 and K2 have been enjoying their academic week on campus. We finished up our Human Ecology Intensives yesterday, which were focused on Sustainable Farming, Aquaponics, or Plastics. Each group spent a total of 9 hours working in these groups, learning in depth about the topics. Sustainable Farming learned about permaculture and all the systems we have on our own farm that imitate natural ones. We spent a handful of hours constructing an herb spiral. We made an escalating rock wall spiral and layered compost, cardboard, straw, pig manure, dirt, and seaweed on top. We put rotting logs on the bottom of the layers because they act like sponges and retain a lot of moisture. The purpose of the lasagna-like soil is to help create rich soil that stays wet, therefore reducing the amount of water needed. The purpose of the spiral shape is to create microclimates. The elevation in the middle creates shade for the sides, and the elevation encourages drainage of water, making the bottom of the spiral a shadier, wetter microclimate, and the very top the sunniest. Each group made videos about their projects and prepared 15-minute presentations for our last class. We had a lot of fun learning from our peers and watching their creative videos. The aquaponics group twisted some comedy into theirs, and scored quite a few laughs from the room.

Otherwise, students here are continuing with morning exercise, with run and swim tracks doing routing workouts this morning. Our pole swim was especially tricky due to the current and the waves. Definitely swallowed a considerable amount of water. We had a long exercise two days ago, and everyone is getting excited, as the Super Swim looms closer and closer. We are praying for good conditions.

This week we also went on our night dives. This was probably one of my favorite nights at The Island School. Simply being out on the boats as the sun was setting, the water unusually glassy, was a ludicrously beautiful sight. Our group descended, equipped with dive lights, and we immediately saw what I am positive to be an 8-foot long loggerhead sea turtle. It was so big it almost looked prehistoric. Our group sat still watching it for a good while until we thought our lights were bothering it, and I was so excited that I was exclaiming to myself through my regulator and squeezing my dive buddy’s arm. There was a lot of other life to see down there that we explored during our dive, but that turtle was something I will never forget. I went to sleep that night smiling; so happy with the place I am living, the experiences I am having, and the people I get to share them with.