Past projects 2
Making Math Fun and Engaging!
Funded Aug 14, 2024Thank you so much for making my classroom and this world a better place by helping me educate our future leaders! Your generosity and kindness is appreciated more than you know. My students truly value and love coming to school as it is a safe haven for them. They feel safe, cared for and loved thanks to you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Kinney
This classroom project was brought to life by The Gates Foundation and one other donor.Growing a Classroom Farmer's Market!
Funded Aug 13, 2016Dear Donors,
The Aerogarden has been a phenomenal learning experience thus far in my classroom! Students in my classroom watched a video about hydroponics (growing plants without soil) and we did a lesson on what hydroponics provide for plants and what plants really do NEED and what they can do without and still grow. They watched a video about Disney's ride in Epcot "Living with the Land" and how their hydroponics growing system is just a bigger version of our Aerogarden!
We created a chart and discussed the major attributes we would want to track and measure with our plants. We decided to focus on the amount of water and nutrients we give, the number of leaves, size of the leaves and measurements of the overall plant. We tracked the plants on a weekly basis. For our first plants we decided on heirloom cherry tomatoes!
The students were THRILLED to see that we had sprouting after just 6 days (Aerogarden estimates 7-10 days til sprouting). Each group was assigned a plant to track. In my classroom, I run a "Class Economy" system. We have jobs in the classroom that students applied for in order to earn "Kinney Cash" to pay for their desks and spend at the class auction. One of the jobs that they were able to apply for was to be the classroom horticulture specialist. The two students who have been hired have played major roles in ensuring that directions were being followed and that the plants were getting everything they need. They also updated our classroom chart with the amounts of water and nutrients that were being added and any progress notes. These students have taken such ownership over these plants. It's been amazing!
My autistic students and special education students have really taken to this project. The Aerogarden is one of the first things they go look at in the morning when they come in and they always run up to me to update me on any changes that they are noticing in our plants. Unfortunately after day 16 we started to notice some major changes in our plants that were not for the better. The leaves began browning and my students were very concerned. We talked about what might be happening (the light was too low, not enough water, not enough nutrients, too many plants in one pod?) However, everything we talked about we were doing, along with following the directions word for word. By day 21, after raising the light hood higher and emptying the water holder and putting fresh water and nutrients in we had 4 very dead plants. This has prompted one of our lessons for this week, which will be to research heirloom tomatoes in groups and come up with a reason for the failure of our plants based on research. Students will also come up with a plan for when we replant the next batch of pods.
Even though we did not see big, bountiful, tomato plants after our first go at the Aerogarden, this situation has provided an opportunity for a wealth of learning on what plants do need and how we can be better next time!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Kinney