El Camino Creek Elementary

The mission of ECC’s garden is to give all 700 students a meaningful educational experience in a dynamic outdoor learning environment. Our hands-on garden activities support problem-based approaches to learning by focusing on the processes of investigating problems and proposing and implementing creative solutions. In this unique educational environment, students work in teams, enabling not only the expansion of problem-solving abilities, but also the development of communication and critical thinking skills. Students’ imaginations and individual talents are activated as they explain and debate solutions to build consensus and execute ideas. This grant will facilitate the addition of an Active Pollinator Garden and Wildlife Habitat (APGWH) to ECC’s school garden. The APGWH will complement and contextualize our curriculum while providing fresh and multifaceted opportunities for students to discover, query, and understand the interconnectedness of nature through problem-based learning.