We were so lucky and honored to be the focus of a recent project in Leah Corey's freshman biology class at Morro Bay High School!
What a truly humbling and beautiful experience to be a part of. We were completely blown away by the abilities of these teens, both in their academic abilities and the way they expressed themselves. While they did pinpoint some important scientific findings for Sacred Earth Remedies' products, it was even more rewarding for us to watch them interact with natural ingredients that come from the earth and express their innate understanding that it is not necessary to include harsh chemicals and poisons in every day products. This is valuable knowledge to take forward in their lives, and something that gives us so much hope for the future.
Students hard at work comparing samples at different temperatures for bacterial growth!
The project itself began in January and continued through mid-May (!). It required students to test three of our creams: Joyful Awakening, Graceful Aging, and Female Balance, for their ability to stay fresh. The goal was to find out how long each cream lasts in cool, warm, and room temperatures.
These students put so much hard work into this project, beginning with using fresh ingredients to actually make the creams themselves! Then, over the next five months, each group tested the creams at different temperatures against a control to find out which temperature helped preserve the creams the longest.
Through scientific testing and analysis, students found overwhelmingly that storing all three creams in cool environments (either at room temperature or somewhere cooler, like the refrigerator) helped them last the longest, and limited bacterial and yeast growth. In the words of the students, this meant that "the natural preservatives are working!" It also showed that adding harsh chemicals to skincare products to help them last longer is unnecessary, which we considered to be an important takeaway for students to apply in their own lives.
Emilio was very excited to use the Sacred Earth Remedies chapstick and wanted to show off his beautiful "duck face!"
What a gift it is to know that these people are our future! This is what matters most to us - that our future generations are in tune with the vital importance of utilizing what the earth provides, and how we can support each other through community, business and otherwise. When listening to what the students had to say about the products, it was very clear that they hold this awareness.
Beautiful faces!
We hope they take the seedlings of knowledge they learned through this project and apply them to their lives and whatever they decide to do, moving forward. We wish to truly shout out to their teacher, Leah Corey, for creating this opportunity, and to the students themselves with the utmost gratitude for taking part and sharing their hard work and creative thoughts with us.
We began Sacred Earth Remedies with the intention of sharing plant knowledge with the youth community, and we consider it an integral part of what we do. We very much hope this project inspires others to reach out to young people and share their knowledge as well. It was very touching and a genuinely joyful experience to witness these students at work!