HORTICULTURE is a connections class offered to our 8th grade students at General Ray Davis Middle School.  Horticulture is on a nine week rotation and gives the students exposure to gardening and environmental science.  Students have created numerous raised gardens around the school's campus and tend regularly to these gardens through out the school year.  Students have also created and maintained several outdoor classrooms around the campus where students from all classes are welcomed to learn outdoors.  Students discuss current environmental issues affecting our community and assist with awareness of these issues in our school community.  The students work daily with our cafeteria staff using vegetable waste from the cafeteria to create compost for the garden beds.  Science and Horticulture Georgia Performance Standards are addressed throughout the entire class.

Materials:

I bag of potting soil per student

Seeds or plants for garden

Notebook, colored pencils

Shoes/gloves

Course Outline:

Current event: 1 per week from source given by teacher

TITLE; Source; Summary; Why is article relevant? Due Friday of each week  ONLY one per week, done in class

GROCERY BAG gardening- COMPOSTING 5 out of 9 weeks

Design and plant garden with teammates

25 Ga native plant notebook

Video notes (5)

Horticulture webquest

Plant/Sprout worksheet

Butterfly week

Natural dyes: eggs, tie dye

Three Sisters Gardening information

Grow peanuts