My students need soil, container gardening beds, seeds and bird-prevention netting.
FULLY FUNDED! Ms. Carter's classroom raised $425
This project is fully funded
My Students
Most of my students are immigrants or children of immigrants, and virtually all of them are English language learners--and also tactile learners--drawn to the hands-on lessons our class garden supports. The motivation is there, but financing our "outdoor classroom" is an ongoing challenge.
I teach at an inner-city school where heart and commitment steer pedagogy as much as current research does, but also where homeless encampments dot the alley adjacent to our playground.
Still, the streets beyond our gate can gleam, and not just with broken glass. More often, it's a hopeful sort of light, a spark of ingenuity.
As new arrivals stake their claim on the American Dream, small businesses thrive. Social service agencies bloom in vacant storefronts, offering a hand up to the most marginalized among us. And increasingly, creativity, innovation and resourcefulness take root in the form of community gardens: abandoned patches of land reclaimed as life-force, a source of sustenance, a symbol of grit and determination, a sign of rebirth. I proudly count my own classroom's mini-farm among the many nature-spaces greening our neighborhood.
My Project
When I mention light and life here, I am speaking metaphorically, but I am also speaking scientifically. I am talking photosynthesis, cell biology, geometry, chemistry, meteorology, ecology: our classroom garden is a cornucopia of teachable moments.
In years past I have turned to my garden to anchor a math unit on computing crop yields. When an invasive species of moth began wreaking havoc on our winter kale, I used my students' fascination with the phenomenon to introduce the scientific method (hypothesis, prediction, observation, data analysis). Cooking projects are lessons in chemistry and nutrition.
Exposing the same seeds to different growing conditions (rainfall, temperature, sun exposure) is a concrete way to introduce the concept of variables. Charting plant growth is a lesson in measurement and graphing. For this project we need soil, container gardening beds, seeds and bird-prevention netting.
Not only has our garden exposed my students to a wide array of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) subject matter, but every lesson has been hands-on, and rooted, quite literally, in the real world.
By contributing to this project, you can help plant the seeds of knowledge. When it comes to education, we reap what we sew.
More than three‑quarters 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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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. Carter and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
