Past projects 2
Rooted and Rising: Growing Herb Gardens During Distance Learning
Funded Aug 31, 2020Thank you so much for donating to our project! I was overwhelmed by how quickly this project came to fruition because of your generosity (special shout out to the Burton Tech alums who donated!). Because of your support, all students in my Garden Advisory class were able to grow their own herb gardens during distance learning this semester.
When I first told the students about receiving funding for our project, they were excited to get started and have something to take care of that didn't involve looking at a computer screen. Furthermore, once the materials arrived, I arranged for the students to (safely) come to our school to pick them up, which gave me the opportunity to see them in person; I hadn't seen some students since March 2019! We were all so happy to see each other, even just for a few moments, and our brief connection really helped out classroom community flourish during a whole semester of online learning.
After everyone received their herb garden kits, I taught students the best ways to set up their garden during our Zoom class. After set up, students were to complete a weekly herb garden journal online which involved making quantitative and qualitative observations. Part of their journal included uploading photos of their herb garden progress - it has been made abundantly clear that most of my students have some serious green thumbs (meanwhile my parsley is looking a little sad. . . oh well!).
Next semester, will we continue updating each other on our herb gardens via our herb garden journal, and I will incorporate online lessons on amending soil, and cooking demos on how to use the herbs. From the bottom of my heart, I am so grateful to you for helping give my students the opportunity to cultivate herbs (and dare I say, joy?) during these uncertain times.”
With gratitude,
Ms. Garcia
Our Garden Is Growing - Can You "Dig" It?
Funded Jan 24, 2018Thank you so much for donating to our school's community garden. The Garden Club and class was started by students back in 2015; we had no tools, no plants, and definitely no resources to make our dream of a garden a reality. Over the last couple of years we have received minimal donations which gave us a foundation for our work, however we lacked proper tools that would truly make our garden flourish.
The day the DonorsChoose package arrived was a memorable day indeed for my high school students. They were so excited to open all the boxes and wanted to get started on improving our garden that very day! We went to our garden later that week and it was such a joy to see students literally getting their hands dirty and problem solving to figure out how to put together the raised beds. It was outdoor student-centered education at its finest.
Because of your support and donation, we have been able to increase the size of our garden by two raised beds and we have a permanent set of tools that students can use to maintain the garden. With the new soil and raised beds, we had the space to plant strawberries for the first time! The students were absolutely thrilled when we were planting them. The black fabric to block our weeds has been placed throughout the garden walk ways and has greatly improved the aesthetics of the garden. The students feel proud of the space they've created and this honestly wouldn't have been possible without your generosity. Thank you!”
With gratitude,
Ms. Garcia