Interview with Paul Rule, Science & Garden Teacher

Paul sat down with Haley Purdy, parent and board member, to talk about his path to SRV and his goals for the science and garden program.

Science teacher Paul spent many years in Ecuador, first in the Peace Corps, and then running his non-profit promoting agroforestry and kitchen gardens. Here, Paul is pictured on an abandoned cacao plantation that Paul’s Ecuadorian team of farmers restored using natural farming methods. They converted the land use from monoculture to polyculture resulting in restored production from the cacao and new food crops for the community.

What is your philosophy on getting the students interested and excited about science?

My goal is to get the students to realize that they are already scientists simply by being curious and engaged with the world around them. They are already asking the kinds of questions and doing the guessing work – when they’re outside building forts, when they find a bug and bring it to me to identify. Being a scientist is something they’re already good at.

Tell us about your background in agroforestry and your work abroad.

I got my undergrad in history and education. After college, I went to the Peace Corps. I had always done gardening, but the Peace Corps is where I really got to spend time with farmers and study up on how they used to farm, prior to monocropping (same crop, same field, year after year). That is where I picked up a love of agroforestry (the practice of growing trees or shrubs alongside crops to improve soil, water, climate and provide food, income and wildlife). I got to travel all over Ecuador, meet farmers, and practice in the Amazon, the upland mountains in the Sierra, and the lowlands coast. Ecuador is unique because the country contains every biome that we know of on earth, in one small country.

When I got back, I was substitute teaching, and I was accepted into Cornell’s International Agriculture and Rural Development program. There, I studied all forms of farming and sustainable practices. After graduation I began my own nonprofit that took me back to Ecuador to do food security work and education for their families. I would visit farms, promote agroforestry (over monocultures) and promote “kitchen gardens” or gardens for household consumption.

Unfortunately, due to political strife and gang violence, the people in Ecuador became more concerned about bodily security than food security and it wasn’t safe for me to stay there.

What happened next?

When I left Ecuador, my dreams were crushed. I thought I’d be doing work abroad forever. I honestly felt lost. Then my best friend, Gusten, told me of an opportunity to work at the SRV summer camp in 2023 as a nature counsellor. I applied and interviewed with Liia, but little did I know this community at SRV would welcome me with open arms. I slowly started working with the garden and animals. Before long, the School in Rose Valley became my place for inspiration. A place where I feel that I can put down roots as I grow professionally and personally. The farm, garden, and commitment to farm to fork sustainability has given me a new sense of purpose. I look forward to solidifying and expanding my work with the garden and as the science teacher here at SRV. I didn’t realize then the world of opportunity that existed at home around domestic food security; – that we can build up these practices at home, and connect to those abroad.

What was your biggest learning when working abroad?

In Ecuador, I learned that so much of farming has to do with organizing people and getting buy-in from families. Also, I was working with families that had spent most of their lives growing and selling cacao. I wanted them to start kitchen gardens for their own health and well being. They were planting borders of herbs in their gardens as a pest deterrent and we realized they were able to cut the herbs, sell them, and make more money than they ever had selling cacao. This was a discovery we never would have expected.

How did these lessons translate to home?

I’m currently working with a nonprofit called Grands Stepping Up. They provide a range of services, including a food pantry. They were looking for sources of fresh produce and contacted me to help them start local gardens. We started two local gardens – one in Aston and one in Springfield – and last year produced 200 lbs of food for that pantry.

Paul found SRV first through his role as the nature counselor at summer camp. Now he’s excited to continue to build a science program that has so much potential.

Paul – can you give us an example of one lesson and how it progresses through each of the grades?

Yes! Cookies are the lesson.

In Preschool – they make the cookies. They practice taking turns, putting in the ingredients, mixing, rolling, and putting it on the sheets, and we focus on the importance of hand washing and microbiology.

K/PC – We review the importance of washing hands to prevent the spread of germs and disease before getting into the cookie ingredients. We look at bacteria on our hands under the microscope, both pre-washing and post-washing, to understand what could be transferring to the food.

MC – In MC they start making cookies on their own. We look at what happens when you mix baking soda with water – you get CO2, enough to put out a match if you really needed to. Then we compare cookies with and without baking powder – bubbles, textures, etc. We discuss heat and the release of CO2 in the baking process.

OG – In OG they make cookies by picking out variables, asking questions like, what happens if I double the butter? They play with hypotheses and substitutions. This work is about conceptualizing that cooking and baking is chemistry. We also talk about how this process is what you do in a science experiment – keep everything else the same, change one thing, and see what happens. We then look at the chemical equation for what they are baking, and work through the elements. We talk about how all human activity releases CO2 and what the impact is of CO2 on our climate.

What’s going on in the garden this year and what are your hopes for it?

We are starting plants as we speak. We’ll start with cool season crops – lettuce, spinach, swiss chard and beets. Then, in a month, we’ll begin warm weather crops like tomatoes, peppers, squash, carrots and herbs. Middle Circle and Oldest Group students are starting to plant from seeds and learn how to transplant the plants. In OG, students help with cultivation – taking care of the crops in the field, looking for concerning pests, cutting the greens, etc.

My goal is to create an SRV salad bar, run by the students. The students and staff could grow, cut and serve the salad – from farm to fork. I’m also collaborating with Courtney, our art teacher, to uncover how to grow plant dyes that we can then use in the art room. We got started this fall making dyes from black walnuts, marigolds (which we grew), and turmeric, and madder root (which we bought,) to dye cotton fabric. Next we want to grow our own madder root, false indigo and a few other plants so that we can create all of the primary colors using dyes grown here at school. We want to use these to dye sheep wool.

This year, we have explored the science of fire-making and made syrup from tapped trees. In future years, I’d like to take everything we have on-site, from eggs from the chickens to tomatoes from the garden, and create a meal by campfire or outdoor kitchen. That’s the fun about progressive education – the ideas are endless!