Winter Wonders: A Recap of the Season
Can you sense that spring is here - even without a calendar? Pussy willows and other buds are showing up; purple and yellow crocuses sprinkle front yards with pops of color, and the birds are making a racket! The growing season is now upon us.
Engaging Winter Season
But did you know that we stayed open all winter long? Young children from the Somerville Family Learning Collaborative (SFLC), Dandelion Montessori, Community Preschool and other groups visited regularly throughout the colder months, playing in and exploring the space, and experiencing what happens to the local flora and fauna while the garden is in its winter dormancy.
In the past month, we had a soil delivery, ordered our spring seeds, started our indoor seedlings (thanks to volunteers with extra space at home!) and ran some workshops, including one at CultureHouse’s Community Pop-up Space in Union Square and one for the IMPACT group. Plus, we tabled at the Somerville Winter Farmers Market (where we’ll be again March 30), the Gardeners’ Gathering in Boston and the Summer Camp & Activity Fair, where we engaged Dr. Rubén Carmona, SPS Superintendent, in trying a maple drill! Our Programming Committee is fleshing out the year’s calendar, featuring DOZENS of FREE public and educational events.
L to R: A volunteer greets visitors, and folks stop by to peruse seeds at the Winter Farmers' Market; SPS Super-intendent Dr. Rubén Carmona tries out our maple tapping drill, and Growing Center Operations Manager Bethany Burke talks to visitors to our table at the Summer Activities Fair.
Stories, Reflections & Artifacts: Children in the Garden
The Growing Center went state-wide in March, as our very own Nature-based Educator Paula Jordan, who oversees our Children in Nature Initiative, joined forces with educator and author Ron Grady, a Ph.D. candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education to present on children’s experiences at the Growing Center at the Massachusetts Environmental Education Society’s annual conference in Worcester. Read more about their presentation!
Maple Magic
Earlier this month, more than 700 visitors, including 80+ area preschoolers and youth, didn’t have to leave Somerville to participate in another rite of spring: the 25th Annual Maple Boil Down! The Educational Boil Down, held on Friday, March 1, saw more than 100 students and teachers from early childhood, youth and teen partner groups visit the Growing Center. We had help from lots of energetic volunteers and local educators who worked behind the scenes on prep, as well. Activities at the Educational Boil Down included art, pretend fire making and tool use, with a focus on multilingual learners. Check out educator Lydia Mackie’s recent guest post about it on our Blog, The Five Senses: Children’s Experience of the Maple Boil.
In addition, an English language learners class from the Somerville Public Schools visited in advance to help set up the space for the big event, and Paula Jordan presented a nature-based maple education class off-site to four separate classes at the local Head Start program on Allen Street. And we held a maple education session for a local Girl Scout troop at Connexion United Methodist Church, which kindly gave us access to their kitchen space for the finishing stage of the boiling process. The Girl Scouts tasted some Somerville syrup on pancakes prepared by their leader, after learning about the process of making it and completing some awesome maple crafts!
L to R: Nature Educator and the Growing Center's Children in Nature Initiative Coordinator Paula Jordan visits some CAAS Head Start classrooms in Somerville for some offsite maple syrup lessons in advance of the Maple Boil; preschoolers engage in open-ended play using "mini" maple tapping/collecting parts; local Girl Scout leader sets up freshly made pancakes for her troop's maple syrup lesson at Connexion!
The Boil continued into Saturday, March 2 - the big public Boil Down event, where more than 600 visitors braved the cold drizzle to wander in and out to learn about the maple syrup process from start to finish. We’re excited to share this year that it got a brief inaugural mention in the Washington Post last week! Somerville’s annual pastoral community gathering that ushers in the change of seasons cannot happen without many hours of work from our dedicated part-time staff and dozens of enthusiastic volunteers. This is a true labor of love; read more about this volunteer and community-led project on our website.
Clockwise from Top Left: Stirring the boiling sap; adding sap to the evaporator; this Somerville couple had their second date at the Maple Boil - 14 years ago, and try to come back every year; lots of smiles at the Boil; finished bottles of syrup; and an SHS CTE Culinary Program student helps jar up and label the finished syrup.
Getting Involved (in More Ways than One)
Volunteer Orientations have begun! We held our first orientation of the season on Monday, March 25, where more than 25 new volunteers learned the ropes and got to meet our new Operations Manager, Bethany. See the full schedule of orientations on our Volunteer Page - and note, you don’t have to sign up in advance; you can just show up to one!
On Sunday, April 21, as part of our Strategic Planning initiative, we invite current, future, and past volunteers to come together at Connexion (149 Broadway, East Somerville) for a facilitated conversation on the Growing Center’s future, an opportunity for volunteers to share some of their thoughts and experiences, meet one another and get to know Bethany! More information here.
Interested in helping us continue our community-centered outreach and education, but don’t have a lot of time? Consider donating $30 toward our 30-30-30 Campaign, and help us reach our goal of $30,000 by the end of May, 2024!
As building projects become more complex, consistent structural information becomes increasingly important. Applying BIM in structural engineering can help improve design visualisation, coordination, and documentation throughout the project lifecycle. The College of Contract Management provides broader construction-focused learning that complements an interest in digital engineering and project management.
Seasonal community programmes show how much coordination can sit behind activities that appear simple to visitors. Preparing seedlings, arranging workshops, organising volunteers and running a large public event all depend on people, materials and facilities being available at the right time. Weather adds another variable, particularly when outdoor activities need to continue despite cold or wet conditions. A useful planning lesson is that delays are not always caused by one major problem; small changes can accumulate when tasks are dependent on one another. For larger projects, the same principle makes understanding programme changes important when assessing whether an event actually affected the planned completion date. This is where Delay Analysis can provide a structured way of examining changes against the original…
Winter activities can be a useful reminder that learning does not always have to happen through formal lessons or worksheets. Seasonal projects give children opportunities to observe changes in the environment, experiment with materials, work together, and explain what they notice in their own words. I also think activities that involve building or creating something are particularly valuable because they encourage children to think about shapes, space, measurements, and how different parts fit together. Those skills can gradually connect to more technical forms of learning later on. For instance, understanding isometric projection in engineering drawing involves visualising three-dimensional objects and representing them clearly on a two-dimensional surface, which relies heavily on spatial awareness. Children do not need to be introduced to…
Great post! I always appreciate articles that focus on finding comfortable everyday clothing without overcomplicating things. I’ve recently been exploring different styles of PSD boxer briefs, and this gave me a few ideas to consider.
Reflecting on seasonal transitions in community gardens highlights the importance of thoughtful site layout, drainage planning, and sustainable landscape design. Preparing public green spaces for future seasons relies heavily on precise spatial mapping and accurate structural drawings for features like raised beds and pathways. Finding specialized cad courses near me through the College of Contract Management equips community planners with practical digital drafting skills to map outdoor environments efficiently. Professional spatial design tools play a key role in supporting long-term community development.