Sci-Tech Laboratory: Student Trip to Promote Environmental LearningThrough our partnership with The Waterfront Partnership 15 members of our Green Team, from grades 3rd-5th, were able to visit Towson University’s Sci-Tech laboratory on May 18th, 2015 in order to spend the day as junior Scientists studying the living organisms in the Chesapeake Bay and how water pollution affects them.
Raised-bed Schoolyard Garden: Student-driven vegetable and herb planting. Highlandtown Elementary/ Middle School #237's Green Team’s youth gardening program encourages children to eat healthy foods, lead a healthy lifestyle, and take care of our planet through environmental responsibility.
In the Spring of 2014 (the year the garden was first established), students built, planted and maintained a school vegetable garden. That year, as soon as the weather in March allowed, Green Teamers invited the rest of the school to plant two 48 sq. ft. raised beds. Over 80 students across grades 2-8 joined them to plant seedlings donated by Great Kids Farm. In June students celebrated the first harvest by picking and preparing fresh vegetable for their peers to sample during the school lunch (including kale, spinach and swiss chard). During the summer of 2013, students in our summer enrichment program learned about gardening and healthy eating with a Growing Healthy Habits curriculum; they also built 2 more raised beds, leading to a total of over 150 sq ft of gardening space to start the 2014/2015 school year. and now have over In the 2014/2015 we used that garden as a focal point for our Green Team lessons around wellness and proper nutrition. This curriculum included an overview of food label basics, the importance of fresh foods and the need for increased physical activity. Beginning in late-winter/early spring of the 2014/2015 school year, 15-20 students utilized Green Team after-school sessions to plant eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, cucumber, kale, raspberries, blackberries, and a variety of herbs including mint, rosemary, and thyme. When it was time to harvest, all of this produce was sent home to the families and friends of Green Team members. Due to staff transition over the summer 2015, we unfortunately do not have photographic evidence of the students planting efforts during the 2014/2015 school year. In the first raised bed photo to the right, the the top two beds are two of the four original beds utilized during the 2013/2014 & 2014/2015 school years. In the painting picture directly to the right, the raspberry bush and the remnants of the tomato and cucumber plants can be seen inside the fence. This year, in order to expand our overall gardening space, the Green Team once again partnered with Great Kids Farm to expand the schoolyard garden. Great Kids Farm donated four more raised beds during the winter of 2015, as well enough top soil to fill all four of them. Starting in mid-April, Green Team students will utilize after-school time to plan and plant herbs, vegetables, and flowers in the 8 raised garden beds, in an effort to show the school community what can be done with this amount of usable garden space. Recognizing that behavior change takes time, we plan to use this project as a springboard to teach the school about the benefits of this garden as an outdoor classroom, so that grade-level teachers can plan this into their curricula for the 2016/2017 school year and beyond. |
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Students Create Outdoor Artwork for Schoolyard Garden: 1.) Walking stones for the Audubon Bird- and Butterfly-Friendly Garden; 2.) Mural/Fence Project to Demarcate the Limits of the Schoolyard Garden; 3.) Re-used Bottle-Cap Mural Project for the Adopt-A-Lot Space.
As an integral part of our work with the Green Team--as well as in an effort to accent the gardening and environment-focused work that we're doing outside the building--we have incorporated more outdoor student artwork during the 2015/2016 school year. Shown above, students continue work in October 2015 on a fence mural project started during the summer of 2015. This mural, when complete, will serve as an eye-catching outer limit to the Schoolyard Garden and showcasing student artwork. Shown below to the right: students take part in a stone-making activity with an instructor from Patterson Park Audubon. Utilizing sand, wood glue, flour and small gemstones and pieces of sea glass, students mixed and pour 8 stepping stones, pressing designs into those stones such as the student-created flower design show in the photo collage.
Finally, students are also in the midst of a year-long effort to create a large, 3-panel re-used bottle cap mural. At the beginning of Green Team sessions in September 2015, students were challenged to collect 10,000 plastic bottle caps, and shown examples of re-used bottle cap murals around the country. This project was pitched as a way to creatively engage the entire school body (770 students) in bottle cap collection. At present (March 2016) the students have collected 4,600 caps, and are well on their way to their final goal. Collection boxes are located throughout the building, as well as at the office of the Southeast Community Development Corporation. Staff, students, and families from Highlandtown #237, as well as staff from the Southeast CDC, have partnered to get the school almost halfway to the goal! In the meantime, the Green Team has utilized several after-school sessions to conduct design sessions to figure out what imagery they would like to create within the mural. An example of one of these sessions--a painting of North, Central and South America to represent where all the Green Team members come from and to highlight our students' diversity--is shown below. To date, however, the students have not settled on a final design (although they have many different ideas!).
Finally, students are also in the midst of a year-long effort to create a large, 3-panel re-used bottle cap mural. At the beginning of Green Team sessions in September 2015, students were challenged to collect 10,000 plastic bottle caps, and shown examples of re-used bottle cap murals around the country. This project was pitched as a way to creatively engage the entire school body (770 students) in bottle cap collection. At present (March 2016) the students have collected 4,600 caps, and are well on their way to their final goal. Collection boxes are located throughout the building, as well as at the office of the Southeast Community Development Corporation. Staff, students, and families from Highlandtown #237, as well as staff from the Southeast CDC, have partnered to get the school almost halfway to the goal! In the meantime, the Green Team has utilized several after-school sessions to conduct design sessions to figure out what imagery they would like to create within the mural. An example of one of these sessions--a painting of North, Central and South America to represent where all the Green Team members come from and to highlight our students' diversity--is shown below. To date, however, the students have not settled on a final design (although they have many different ideas!).