STEM Garden

School:: Dune Lakes Elementary School
Subject:: STEM Education
Teacher:: Meredith Flowers
: Julie Perk, Susanne Martin, Ann Quinn, Channing Friend
Students Impacted:: 700
Grade:: Pre K - 5
Date:: October 1, 2019

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

CHELCO - $1,500.00

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 48

My gifted students had a wonderful time planting fruits, vegetables, herbs, and trees in our outdoor school garden. We spent time researching what to plant, the watering cycle, and the harvesting cycle. Because of COVID-19, we were not able to dive into the STEM curriculum I used the grant to purchase, but we will pick up with it in the Fall! Thank you so much for funding this grant. My students thoroughly enjoyed being outside and I know they will enjoy the STEM curriculum in the Fall.

grant photo

Original Grant Overview

Goal

Multiple grade levels participate in cultivating, planting, tending, and harvesting a school garden to provide fresh foods for the entire school.

What will be done with my students

Participating classrooms (one classroom per grade level) will work to prepare garden beds with the assistance of the Walton County Ladies Garden Club members. Students will plant seeds, shrubs, and trees to produce greens, fruits, and vegetables.
On a rotating schedule, classes will spend one recess per week to water and weed garden beds. Students will chart growth to incorporate data collection and use of graphs. If science standard applies, classes can study the life cycle, various plant topics such as chlorophyll and photosynthesis, as well as weather studies that impact the growing season. Classes can prepare a slide show of the growing process and appropriate science information to present to their grade level. Social studies can be incorporated by studying local flora and regional soil situations.
Students will harvest items and provide to the lunchroom for preparation to distribute to the school body.

Benefits to my students

Students benefit from time spent outdoors interacting with the Earth. STEM activities enrich and extend the experience to multiple curriculum disciplines. Interactions with Garden Club members bridge the generation gap and provide opportunities for students to gain knowledge from senior mentors.
Benefits of participation provide background knowledge for all curriculum required in elementary school.
Participating classes will submit a report of science test scores compared with a non-participating class.

Budget Narrative

Fruit trees (pear, apple, orange), fruit shrubs (blueberry, strawberry, raspberry), vegetable seeds (cabbage, lettuce, carrot, cucumber, tomato, pea, green bean), watering cans, garden tools such as hand rakes and spades, baskets for food collection.
$1500

Items

#	Item	Cost
1	Fruit trees	$600.00
2	Fruit shrubs	$600.00
3	Vegetable seeds	$100.00
4	Watering Cans	$25.00
5	Garden tools	$150.00
6	Baskets for food collection	$25.00
	Total:	$1,500.00

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