Land labs serve an important role in giving students access to a natural environment to observe native plants and wildlife, apply STEM concepts with hands on projects, and build a better understanding of how critical biodiversity is for ecological health.
Learning to produce food, fiber and energy in sustainable ways is a tremendous opportunity for students of all ages within land labs.
By designing systems that mimic natural processes (biomimicry), we are able to produce food, fiber, and energy in more sustainable ways for local communities.
Students, teachers, and community members can participate in multi-disciplinary activities ranging from land restoration, animal husbandry, gardening, weather analysis to outdoor art studies.
The purpose of a land lab is to allow students to develop, implement, and learn about practical, sustainable solutions for addressing the five basic physiological needs all humans have: Our industrial systems of providing food, water, energy, shelter, and sanitation have inherent weaknesses to their centralized models.
Long supply chains, fossil-fuel dependance, environmental damage, and the fragmented production of goods are common traits to industrial models.
Land labs provide students with real-world experiences to help change their behavior as consumers, and get them more involved with meeting their 5 physiological needs.
Studies have shown that as our digital landscape of social media has exploded in popularity, depression and mental struggles have increased dramatically in students.
[1] Studies also show that student's mental health benefits immensely from being outdoors and participating in hands on projects with meaningful outcomes.
[2] Multiple types of local "waste" streams, that can often be obtained freely, can be used to supply a land lab with the raw materials to build soil, generate power, grow food, and restore biodiversity.
An educational land lab with pollinators gardens, bird houses, and vegetable garden space within an urban setting.
Grow bags provide a flexible and mobile gardening environment for land labs. Chard and kale are growing in these grow bags.
Free range chickens are an important part of the ecosystem for a local land lab. The chickens eat insects, greens, and grain. They produce eggs and manure. Their manure is used as a garden fertilizer.
Compost rollers are used to cleanly produce rich, organic compost for sustainable gardens. Food waste, veggie scraps, grass clippings, cardboard, biochar, leaves and other biomass are mixed together. These inputs have varying levels of carbon and nitrogen which are required for producing compost. Microbes and insects break down these inputs into a rich soil amendment to help fertilize plants sustainably.
A methane digester intakes food waste, water, manure and other biomass. Methanogens in the water then consume nutrients in the organic slurry, and methane gas is released. The methane gas is captured, stored and pressurized, and then is used to power a gas stove for cooking. Liquid fertilizer is produced as a byproduct of this process. This is a fantastic example of sustainable, local energy.
Photovoltaic solar panels provide clean electricity for this land lab. Using local power to operate garden tools, sensors, cameras, and water pumps provides a great example of sustainable energy for students.
This tiny house on wheels provides a good example of more sustainable shelters. Built from locally produced cypress wood, this tiny house on wheels gives students a sense of what a living system integrated into solar power, rainwater collection, and sustainable utilities looks like.
Black soldier fly larvae (BSF) as raised in this container. As they mature the grubs climb up and fall into the harvest bucket. BSF are a protein and fat rich food source for chickens, fish and wild birds. BSF can be fed coffee grounds, food scraps / waste, and even manure. BSF are a sustainable insect feedstock.
Green onions and garlic are growing in these raised metal garden beds. Raised beds are a great addition to a land lab as they make gardening more accessible for people of all ages.
Cameras and environmental sensors help students and teachers monitor land lab conditions in real time. This sensor takes photos of growing plants, records humidity / temperature / soil moisture and light levels.
Organic Liquid fertilizer can be produced by adding green biomass to tanks of water, adding leaf mold, and then allowing anaerobic fermentation and decay to occur. The microbes break down nutrients in the biomass which can then be used to fertilize garden plants.
Biochar (charcoal) is produced in this double burn barrel. Chunks of woody biomass are placed within an inner barrel, feedstock to "cook" the inner biomass is placed around the inner barrel, and then the feedstock is ignited. This converts the woody biomass into almost pure carbon. The carbon biochar is then used to amend compost. This sequesters carbon, and provides a good home more microbes in the soil. Some advanced biochar units can capture the heat for heating homes, water, air, and even produce electricity with the aid of a stirling engine.
Rainwater is collected from a rooftop of a tiny house and then diverted into two 275 gallon IBC totes. This is an affordable way to capture water for the gardens, livestock, and other land lab uses.
