Biodynamics and the School Garden Curriculum: Growing the Next Generation of Farmers

A new four-session weekend intensive with Ronni Sands

Saturdays, January - April 2020

3:00-5:00pm ET/ 2:00-4:00pm CT/  12:00-2:00pm PT

Course Content

In this 4-week course, we will explore the garden curriculum inspired by Waldorf education. We will look at developmentally appropriate activities for children K-12, finding ways to match your site to the needs of your age group. We will cover seasonal core lessons and tasks, with a focus on compost, class management, ecology, herbal studies, and growing and cooking food from the garden. The garden classes provide an unlimited opportunity to practice biodynamics and sustainability as we become stewards of the Earth.  

Together we can network, problem solve and be creative.

A certificate of completion will be available, please review requirements here.

For the full course schedule, click here.

Course Format

Biodynamics and the School Garden Curriculum: Growing the Next Generation of Farmers spans four live video sessions, Saturdays, January 18, February 15, March 14th and April 18, 2020.

Ronni and course participants meet through live, interactive video classes that include:

  • Lectures to illuminate and clarify the topics of study
  • Readings with study questions from the assigned text
  • Question and answer sessions
  • Small-group and full-group facilitated conversation and discussion

To fully participate in the live video sessions, you need to have a reliable internet connection and a computer, tablet, or smartphone with a camera and microphone. If you don’t have a device that supports this video technology, you may access the course via telephone. Video recordings of each weekly session will be available to participants to review content or make up for a missed class. 

To ensure continuity and a high-quality educational experience, participants are asked to commit to the full four sessions.

Required Reading

Registration

Registration for this course will open in August. Registration for the course is $180 for the general public, $162 for Soil Builder Members, and $144 for Seed Sower and above members. Become a member of the Biodynamic Association to get the discount automatically! Partial scholarships are available through the Biodynamic Scholarship Fund.

Presenter

Ronni Sands has been a garden teacher at Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm, a K-12 school on a 32 acre property, for the past 26 years. She has also been a Kindergarten teacher, a market gardener, and has worked with developmentally delayed adults on a dairy farm. She did her Biodynamic Training with Alan York and Hilmar Moore in 1980-81 in Southfield, Michigan. She and Willow Summer co-wrote the book- Growing Sustainable Children, a Garden Teacher's Guide.