Sustainable practices and permaculture in Jordan
Today, Spark Arts Explorers visited the country of Jordan to take a look at some of the permaculture projects there. We first went to the area of Wadi Rum to a site that had once been inhospitable arid desert, but has been transformed into a lush oasis from permaculture practices over a matter of years. […]
Making Balinese Shadow Puppets
We learned about the battle between good and evil told through the popular Balinese story of the characters, Barong, the king of the good spirits, and the witch queen, Rangda. We examined some Balinese carved wooden masks of Barong and Rangda and discussed their fearsome appearance as depicted by Balinese artists. We saw similarly fearsome […]
Visiting the Green School in Bali
Many Balinese people live in harmony with the natural environment, seeing spirit and soul in the natural world around them. We took a look at the Green School in Bali, an international school without walls and made out of bamboo. The Green School’s goals are to deepen the bonds between people and nature, and to […]
Park Time!
We spent hours in the park! Running across the fields and slopes, we imagined ourselves in Scotland where we visited the Scottish Highlands, rode on some Highland cattle and looked out for the Loch Ness monster. The group absolutely fell in love with a wonderful spot by a vernal pond, where we set up camp. […]
Circle: Findhorn and ecovillages
Today we traveled to Scotland, where we discovered the famous ecovillage of Findhorn. This successful community creates their own energy using windmills, grows much of their own food, and runs their own natural waste system that mimics wetlands. We got to watch clips from a documentary about Findhorn to see what life looks like there.
Appreciating our Wetlands
Similar to our aquaponic system, wetlands provide multiple benefits to an ecosystem. Considered the “kidneys of the earth”, wetlands not only filter water of pollutants, but also provide habitats for animals, reduce flooding, and decrease soil erosion. Feeling inspired, we then created our own wetlands making sure to include elements to represent producers (plants), consumers […]
Learning about Aztec chinampas farming and setting up an aquaponics system
After introducing ourselves with our talking feather, we visited Mexico to learn about the chinampas farming design that was used for hundreds of years as a means of producing an abundance of food with little input. These finger-like “floating gardens” make the most of the complex interactions between water, plants and creatures to create a […]
Free play: Potting plants and sprouting seeds
There is nothing quite as grounding as working with soil! Spark explorers got to get their hands dirty first thing in the morning by re-potting our tomato and cucumber plants. We also started to sprout mung bean seeds in a dish and predicted how long it would take for them to grow.
And that’s a wrap!
Spark Explorers took some time to appreciate one another’s art from the week at our display tables. We all left, excited, full of new knowledge, and promising to carry our love of nature and world culture back to Brooklyn with us!
The history of Prospect Park
We met up with Kyle in the park for a fascinating background story on Prospect Park and Litchfield Villa. We even had a chance to go into the lobby of Litchfield Villa to observe its old architecture.