Garden Classrooms

Washington Institute for Specialized Educ

Washington Institute for Specialized Learning (WISE) has an existing school garden. WISE serves grades 6-12. The garden is managed by instructor Bruce Mathis. Students have a curriculum, practicums, and also watch the cooking of the food they harvest, then enjoy the bounty of eating. Students learn about organic, sustainable gardening practices (which are implemented in their school garden) and are encouraged to start gardens at home. Extra produce is shared with the students to take home, share with their families, and encourage healthy eating.

New River Middle School

We would like to start a garden to use in our cooking club at New River. The club raises funds to purchase fresh produce to cook with. The garden will be used to help the students learn about where their food comes from and the freshly grown vegetables will enhance their menus and recipes.

Millenium Middle School

Students will help to plant, care, water and harvest the fruit from the trees planted in the Tropical Fruit Tree Garden. In addition, the students will participate interactively in a horticultural and nutritional orientation. There will be an opportunity for other educational / information workshops conducted by the Rare Fruit and Vegetable Council of Broward County and the nutritionist at the nearest Whole Foods Market will put on a session for both teachers, administration and students.

Paint Rock Valley High School

We are a small, rural school with 100 students preschool through 12th grade. Our garden is a component of a larger project to develop an agriculture and agribusiness curricula with aquaponics and integrate these with a home economics curriculum. We hope that this will provide our students with viable alternatives to or to augment row crops and teach them to grow, prepare and eat healthy, locally-grown food. We plan to build greenhouses for the garden and fish tanks so that the programs can proceed throughout the year.

Ellsworth Elementary School

This grant request has its roots in three students who approached me and asked if we could plant a vegetable garden at our school. The students gave up countless recesses to plan an informational meeting. The students’ vision, drive, and passion are what has allowed the seed of an idea grow to a new club that has at least fourteen interested students so far (there are 54 total fifth grade students at our school).

Athens Christian Preparatory Academy

The purpose of our school garden will be three-fold. First, and most importantly, the garden will be used to teach students where food comes from. We want our students to understand that food comes from the land and the labor of those who work the land. Our first goal in anything we do is to teach our students responsibility. In the case of our garden we will instill responsibility by emphasizing the importance of sustainability and community awareness.

Luther School

Our goal is to get all our students closer to their healthy food: planning, planting, caring for, harvesting, preparing and eating vegetables from or garden. Last year we were able to fundraise for and build three 4x4 raised beds. During a work session with our Extension Office and local volunteers, the students built a simple soaker hose watering system and planted the beds using the square-foot gardening method. We also planted micro-greens in small plastic clamshell containers and sprouted seeds in CD cases to study their growth.

Lucy Daniels School

The Lucy Daniels Center Therapeutic Teaching Garden is both an outdoor classroom and a horticultural therapy site for children and their families who are being served through one of the Center’s mental and emotional health programs including the Lucy Daniels School. Horticultural therapy uses live plants and horticulture activities to improve an individual’s mental, physical and emotional well-being.

Agnes L. Mathers Elementary Secondary

The community of Sandspit consists of approximately 250 people. The school is an integral part of the community and many community members have helped to volunteer with the construction and maintenance of the garden. The garden and greenhouse are an integral part of the school community and are greatly supported by the community. We would love to be able to upgrade our current garden site. We are hoping to extend the current size of the garden and repair the plastic that has been damaged. As well, we are looking to purchase plants and seeds that can be grown in our garden area.

Saint Augustine Academy

Our garden goals are:
* To teach our students to love and enjoy good food.
* To teach our students the skills to feed themselves and others.
* To awaken our students' love of being outside with nature as they experience the thrill of watching their plants grow into food.
* To teach our students how to successfully and responsibly maintain a sustainable garden.

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