Food Garden update & live lab

By:

Food Garden& live lab at Magellan International School

Goal: Create nature-oriented spaces around the school grounds to enrich skills of research and observation, as well as integrate nature into the classroom.

Overview

On March 31st the Magellan Green Team organized a “Green Family Day” at Magellan International School. Staff, parents and students came out to participate in the creation of a food garden. The day marked the first Green Team effort and the beginning of an outdoor education area at our Anderson Lane campus, new just this year.  Green space Green Team coordinator (Ethan Vlah) and fourth grade teacher (Jorge Brown) facilitated a lesson to demonstrate how the students could use the food garden as a live laboratory.

People involved:

Two (2) teachers and the curricular coordinator, two (2) members of the staff, nine (9) parents, twenty (20) students, and one company (TDS)

Completed actions

- Cross curricula on nature-oriented activities and unit of inquiry for 4rth grade.

- Creation of a school food garden/live lab

- Fundraising campaign for acquiring plants, tools and materials for the green space at Magellan Anderson Ln Campus

Outcomes

- Students designed the green area and focused on math concepts, teaching how geometric shapes, calculations of area and charts and graphs are all used as parts of the planning and planting process when using the bio-intensive method. 

- Students and staff increased their level of knowledge about the use of nature-oriented spaces to learn important concepts related with nutrition and healthy habits.

–Students improved outdoor skills using gardening tools

 -Parents participated in the creation of green spaces with a curricular purpose

- Beautification of the school outdoor / playground area