What we've been doing this summer and how you can join!

Civics isn't an elective—it's the foundation. Top schools and increasingly selective universities recognize this: they're prioritizing civic engagement because it reveals what grades and test scores cannot—who students actually are and what they'll contribute. Understanding how power works is what separates students who participate in the world from those who observe it.

We wanted our students to see how these things connect — that government, business, and the environment aren’t separate conversations. They’re the same one. Who has power? Who makes decisions? Who feels the impact? Those questions showed up in every unit, from the way communities are governed to the way goods are marketed to who gets clean air and water and why.

This winter, our students dove deep into food justice and community-controlled food economies through our place-based curriculum across Atlanta. We opened the session by connecting Dr. King's vision of environmental and economic justice to how community gardens build neighborhood power and food sovereignty. We also explored gentrification through neighborhood observation walks, examining how changing jobs, demographics, and development reshape who has access to land, food, an

The power of community in academic excellence.

We'd been talking about food apartheid for weeks. The charts, the vocabulary, the questions — our students had the framework. But walking into Sevananda? That's when it got real. Sevananda is one of the oldest collectively-owned natural food stores in the Southeast, and it's right here in Atlanta. Community-owned means the people who shop there can also own it. Decisions about what's stocked, who's paid fairly, where the money goes — that's not a distant corporation. That's t

This season at GrassRoots Middle we are studying the importance of food and it's connection to our government. We can't effectively discuss food without mentioning the importance of SLOW Food. The SLOW Food movement was created in 1989 in Italy by Carlo Petrini. Carlo, along with others, was protesting the opening of a McDonalds in Rome. To protest the McDonald's "Americanizing" of the Italian culture, Petrini directed protestors and others to eat locally and honor regional

See how our lessons are building up to our trip to DC!

Published date: 01/08/2020 It’s fall, which means the leaves are dying. The air is becoming chilly. The days are shorter. And the...

As a classroom teacher, I dreamed of hands-on learning that took students out into their neighborhoods, cities, and world. Now that I am pursuing educational leadership at Harvard, I'm studying what it actually looks like to build experiential learning communities—not simply spaces where we go outside, but genuinely rigorous, engaging, and accessible academic experiences.

In today's fast-paced world, instilling a sense of environmental responsibility and social justice in our youth is more important than...

Digitization has genuinely made our world the smallest it's ever been. I remember a world before social media, the internet, AI, virtual...

Embracing Nature in Education In today's fast-paced world, connecting education with the outdoors is more important than ever. For...

Who can resist the allure of open fire cooking on a warm summer day? The crackling flames, the mouthwatering aromas, and the crisp...

Let's start a conversation around cultural eating. And while we're at it let's dismiss the narrative that healthy means assimilating.

By eating seasonal foods, we can nourish our bodies with foods that are sustainable, nutritious, and economically beneficial.

After years of being an eco-educator, if there is one way to hook our students - it's through a species study. Choosing study material...

Playing in freshwater, saltwater, estuaries, and chlorinated pools has been a popular activity for people of all ages around the globe....

Before we can even go into the health benefits of a plant-based diet, it's essential to discuss what plant-based means in the first place!

Learning outdoors, moving our bodies, and nourishing ourselves with mostly plant-based, whole-food snacks are important aspects of our...