Nelson Mandela said, ❝If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart.❞ I want to reach my Hispanic student population through both their head and heart by teaching about their heritage and cultures using floating gardens in Social Studies class.
Hispanic students rarely see themselves in our classroom curriculum and state standards, so the unit on the ancient Americas really gives them a chance to shine.
They are so proud and excited to find their voice when we study the Aztecs and their chinampas. Growing plants like the Aztecs will validate their culture and teach them real life STEM skills at the same time.
My Project
My social studies students learn about Hispanic cultures by studying the Aztecs of Mexico and their floating farms called chinampas (standard 6.1.1 ancient cultures). Our STEM project will allow them to also learn science (standard 3.LS.2 how plants grow) and the process of investigating a real world problem and reporting on it. We will discuss how the ancient farming skills of the chinampas can help our modern families grow our own fresh food in our communities.
Growing their own plants will help my students learn the life skill of gardening, which they can use to help improve their family's diet and nutrition.
This will especially be a proud moment of finding their own "voice" for our Hispanic students, who often live in poverty and lack easy access to more expensive fresh foods. Can we learn real life skills from the ancient Aztecs and their chinampas? What can Mexican culture teach us about nutrition? The class project will bring this investigation to life. We will also prepare simple recipes using these vegetables in our classroom as part of a celebration of the completion of the unit, and to show students how they can cook healthy foods for their families.
Students will start their plants in school as a class project, and then take them home to continue growing in a family or community garden. The vast majority of our students live in the same large neighborhood, so we will meet as a class to relocate our plants to the community garden one day after school. We plan to grow tomatoes and peppers, foods of traditional Hispanic cultures. Students and families can work in the garden all summer to grow and harvest the community crops and prepare tasty, healthy recipes with the produce they have grown, building healthy habits together.
More than half of students from low‑income households
Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more
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