![]() ![]() Her focus was on developing the curricula for the two upcoming specialised schools for Normal Technical students, one of which was Spectra Secondary School. The idea for the programme first came about when Phoon was a Curriculum Planning Officer at the Ministry of Education. Rather, the purpose is to teach values and skills to students through gardening and give students the chance to have more hands-on and experiential learning activities outside of the classroom. Laughing, she explained that this is an important point to stress because some parents might be worried that their children are being taught to be farmers. Phoon emphasised to us that the goal of the programme is not to teach gardening skills. Given Phoon's enthusiasm for sharing this urban farming knowledge with others, it is fitting, then, that she spends a good portion of her mornings doing just this with the secondary one students in Spectra Secondary School. She then demonstrated this civil union for us by plucking the top off one of the stalks and rubbing it against the silk of the corn while exclaiming, “IVF! IVF!” She said: “Very easy! You look for a female flower and a male flower and you marry them!” #Spectra at plantation how to#In just the first few minutes, I learnt how long it takes to grow corn (60 to 75 days), how to train pumpkins to climb trellises and grow vertically when the planter space isn't wide enough for them to creep horizontally (keep trimming them), and the difference between manual and bee pollination (it’s simpler than it sounds, as Phoon went on to explain). The 61-year-old’s enthusiasm overflowed as she walked us through the garden and threw random tidbits of information at us. ![]() She visits the place almost every day - weekdays to teach classes, Saturdays to tend to the plants with her team of volunteers, and even some Sundays for her own personal “therapy day” when she feels like it. While Phoon's name card designates her role as “School Staff Developer”, it would be fitting for it to also read “Gardening Queen”, “Weed Whisperer”, and “Fruit Fairy.” ![]()
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