Every fall in the Edible Schoolyard garden, sixth grade students participate in the Mesopotamia Walk, a virtual walk through ancient Mesopotamia. The ancient Mesopotamian people were the first in history to domesticate plants and animals, and they are also given credit for the creation of the first wheel, plow, and sail. Ten thousand years after their civilization began, we still depend on their technologies and inventions in our very own Edible Schoolyard garden.

The Mesopotamia Walk consists of three different stations: brick making with clay, sand, and straw; irrigation and dam construction in a giant sandbox; the walk and talk, where students are led through the garden looking at early tools and food plants first domesticated in Mesopotamia that we still grow and depend on today (some examples of this are leeks, cucumbers, figs, apples, and olives).

This activity is a real highlight of the sixth grade garden and kitchen curriculum. When our seventh grade students are asked what they remember most from the previous year in the garden many talk about the Mesopotamia Walk. We usually have science classes in the garden, but this activity is a great example of how any subject can be taught in a garden.  We are deeply grateful to Beth Sonnenberg, one of our dedicated sixth grade teachers, for the development of this lesson.

One of the students collecting the dirt-hay mix to make bricks

The mold to form the bricks

Forming the bricks

The finished product

The irrigation sandbox

Students creating dams