As I mentioned in a previous post, Week 7 was one of most anticipated lectures for me, as I felt it had lots of potential to be interesting and in-depth. I’m happy to report that it was, at least for my group who discussed classroom gardening & plant care. My group came together out of a passion for gardening and plants, which made the conversation that much richer. Despite a slow start, I really felt that once the ball got rolling, we were able to build off each other’s ideas and discuss the topic in-depth. Some of the highlights included:

– use of indoor and outdoor spaces
– involvement of the community (ex: get students involved in light landscaping of community property)
– potential to be cross curricular and hands on

My thinking was that gardening had the potential to cover multiple terms and demonstrate many different aspects of science and math, as well develop a deeper understanding of the natural world around us through reflection and observation. I absolutely left EdCamp feeling inspired and ready to bring some plant life into the classroom!
Here’s a great video I found that briefly highlights some additional potentials of having a classroom garden. The video is a bit old and the school is in Las Vegas, but I think a lot of what they do there (composting, farmers market, etc.) would be quite feasible here.