From the farm: Teacher shares farm videos on YouTube

INDIANAPOLIS — A YouTube video shows Chris Lawson exploring and explaining the goings-on of a greenhouse at Paramount Schools of Excellence.

Lawson, farm manager at the school, shares his adventures on the school’s From the Farm YouTube channel.

“This time of year is all about repetition and practice,” he said, pointing to germinating plants in the greenhouse.

“As an old teacher of mine said, ‘practice makes permanent.’ We want to make sure the choices we make on the farm have a permanent effect. We have to adjust if they don’t. And if they work, we have to make sure we do it right.”

Paramount is a unique school in downtown Indianapolis with a comprehensive garden and farm program.

The schools leaders believe that teaching students to garden is teaching them how life works.

“The farm provides hands-on visual learning for students and is an important tool for teachers,” the website states.

“The environmental education team aims to introduce environmental topics and natural subject matter applicable to each grade level. Whether through gardening or through interacting with our chickens, our students can see their classroom lessons played out in real life.”

The school is a licensed dairy and creamery.

Students milk goats in the morning, and staff make cheese in the basement. It can be purchased at several locations across Indianapolis.

Students also learn about the art of beekeeping in the school’s four-hive apiary.

Select students learn how to manage the hive and harvest honey in the fall. It’s later sold at the weekly farmers market held at the school.

Learn more at paramountindy.org.

Follow Carson’s From the Farm Youtube channel at tinyurl.com/5n85n388.