Growing Green- Supporting our Young Business Owners
My students need lockable storage benches to sit on and to store tools, tables on which to pot plants, and a spacious greenhouse in which we can propagate plants.
A typical day in our outdoor classroom is anything but typical. Three students are hunched over leaves with magnifying glasses in hand, two students are planting corn, and others are turning compost. Curiosity is the potent motivator in our classroom, and I plan to harness it with this project.
Our school is a place where children are cared for and innovation is supported.
As a result, our students are compassionate, out-of-the box thinkers who are excited about learning new concepts. We nurture our students' enthusiasm and zest for learning by providing them with novel experiences throughout the school day. Whether they are helping mediate a peer conflict, measuring the distance across the playground, creating botanical drawings, or creating their own board games, our students are frequently engaged in hands-on problem-solving. This greenhouse project is just the most recent project aimed at stimulating their hearts and minds.
My Project
This greenhouse project is going to be used primarily by our 70 sixth grade students- the elders of our school community. This class of sixth graders is very special, in that they have pioneered many garden projects. They were the first students to run our farmers market program! Now, they are going to inaugurate yet another new component of our garden program- the production garden! With their brilliant enthusiasm, and entrepreneurial spirit we are going to build a full-scale production program that will supply our farmers market and our plant sale.
In this greenhouse, 6th grade students will learn how to propagate plants from seeds, cuttings, and root division. They will start seeds, transplant seedlings into pots, and then prepare them for market, or to be planted in our production garden. The plants started in this greenhouse will be part of a much larger, year long entrepreneurial curriculum where the 6th graders become small business owners.
This project will be an important part of our 6th graders culminating experience at our school.
They will collaborate with each other, learn valuable career skills, apply their math, science, and language knowledge to real life scenarios, AND help make our school community healthier. The greenhouse is the linchpin of this environmentally and socially responsible project because it will provide a space for our students to start the plants for their green businesses.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Schooley and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.