Brookwood Forest Outdoor Classroom

Our vision of the garden has always been to keep it student-centered where we provide effective, challenging and engaging learning opportunities for every one of our students. As a result, everything we do in the garden or plan to do should involve students and/or be aligned with our purpose of increasing student learning and engagement. While teachers bring their classes to the garden and guide instruction, the students are the ones who are in charge of planning, planting, harvesting and basic upkeep. Students are also responsible for sharing information to the school. 

Our school garden is new for the fall of 2016, but we already have a significant percentage of our school community utilizing this space and more teachers awaiting the spring planting season. Specific goals for how we plan to use our garden over the next several years include:

• Positively impact students’ learning and development by providing experiences that are effective, challenging and engaging
• Build capacity in our teachers and students
• Bridge the connection between our school and our community
• Create a sustainable, edible, garden that is student-centered
• Utilize the garden as a teaching and learning laboratory for people within and outside our community
• Find innovative ways to garden and maximize the yield of produce
• Find innovative ways to integrate the garden into our curriculum
• Serve produce from the garden in our school lunchroom
• Donate food to local food pantry and/or charity
• Sell produce from the garden in our own, community, farmers market