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Pharmacy Programs in California

These schools represent the best pharmacy schools within the state of California, and... more

Maryleaf
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Cleaning Supplies Can Contaminate Classroom Air

"Ordinary school cleaning supplies can expose children to multiple chemicals linked to... more

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Standardized Failure

Press Pass TV and the City School examine the role that the MCAS plays in... more

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Insight into Pharmacy School Rankings

Every year, U.S. News conducts various rankings of professional graduate school... more

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40,000 Schools Instead of 40,000 Troops

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/opinion/29kristof.html?em Dispatching more troops... more

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Balancing student performance with educator's pay: Introducing Value-Added Teacher Evaluations

Ever imagine a teacher cramming students for a final? Or a proffesor worrying about... more

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Hoop dreams: sustainable agriculture comes to Lake Clifton Park

"This is a great day for city schools," says Tyler Brown, the 24-year-old project manager of Real Food Farm, a new agricultural endeavor located in Lake Clifton Park. On a recent fall day, Brown is working with a group of 30-40 volunteers, students, and construction workers who are building three hoop houses, or high-tunnel greenhouses, on a stretch of land next to Lake Clifton High School. Between the school's parking lot and its track and football field, a semi is dumping a load of compost that has to be spread across three large plots, while three men use a pipe bender to make the skeletons of the hoop houses. The set up, Brown says, should take less than a week. Then, after the first three demonstration models are complete, Civic Works, the city's nonprofit youth-service organization, will build 20 more just beyond the football field. Located in the Herring Run watershed, Lake Clifton High has plenty of ground to spare.

The food grown in these greenhouses--all manner of vegetables and other produce--will be tended by students, educators, volunteers, and individuals training to be master gardeners. The food will be sold and distributed to schools, farmers' markets, and possibly through a CSA (community supported agriculture) that may be set up at Lake Clifton High.

If Real Food Farm is successful--and there's reason to believe it will be considering the success of a similar endeavor in the city called Great Kids Farm ("The New Meal," Feature, June 3)--it could mean the dawn of an agricultural economy within city limits that provides locally produced, fresh food to inner-city neighborhoods. The new greenhouses will offer learning opportunities for students, and if the effort takes off, it could also mean new "green" jobs for city residents.

Three days later, two of the hoop houses are finished. They are huge tunnels, 148 feet long by 20 feet wide. They're much like traditional glass greenhouses, only far less expensive--at $5,000 per house, they're priced at about one quarter of what a smaller glass greenhouses would cost. They're also greener, as they can operate without built-in electric fans and heaters. Inside tunnel number one, it's hot and steamy--more than 20 degrees hotter than it is outside on a recent 68-degree day. Brown demonstrates the house's venting system, which works by spreading overlapping plastic sections open, letting in refreshing gusts of cool autumn air.

"The beauty to this hoop house is that it's extremely simple," Brown says. "Everything can be off a little, it's flexible. So repairs are super easy."

The technology behind the hoop houses comes from Europe, says Tom Handwerker, director of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore's Small Farm Institute, who Brown refers to as the hoop-house guru. Handwerker, who's been working with Real Food Farm, not only brought the technology, he also brought a construction crew--his friends who agreed to work for free.

"I've been able to travel all over the world. This is technology I'm bringing from . . . Madrid, Paris, London," he says, adding that Real Food Farm "should be pulling [its] first crops within six weeks--and this is in the winter. What they'll do is they'll shift as the season shifts so you get the most energy-rich, nutrient-dense foods that are available without needing the heating and cooling. This is very petroleum-free."

"All of the food grown in here, which is going to be spinach, lettuces, cold crops for the fall, are going to be going directly to the kids," Brown adds. "The city school system has agreed to buy our first harvest.""This is a great day for city schools," says Tyler Brown, the 24-year-old project... more