Ecology 101--Professor Danniells reporting for Duty

I decided to teach an ecology class to Skye and a bunch of other home school kids. I happened on this idea after spending many hours with Skye in the backyard, gardening and "urban-farming" giving her a hands-on education in topics and studies ranging from biology to botany, geology and economics, not to mention construction and landscaping.

So I wanted to share the experience, plus Skye would benefit from the interaction of ideas and such with her peers. If I played my cards right, I might even get the kids to pitch in with some of the "farm" work, Tom Sawyer style.

My first class, an intro to Ecology, was very reminiscent of my first go at clowning for kid's party, which loosely translates as good intentions but a substantial amount of dead air, you know crickets....chirp, chirp, chirp.....

On my second go at it, things were more focused and something I new a goodly amount about; dirt or rather soil. I called it, Soil--Natures Lasagna. I talked a bit, we watched a video and then got our hands dirty, sifting through a cubic foot of soil looking for the various denizens of dirt and compost critters, as well testing PH balances, nitrogen and what not.

Now that I've hit my stride so to speak we're looking to study earthworms, fungi, compost and much, much more. That said, I do wonder who's learning more me or the "students". Not so important really, we're all having a lot of fun.