Green Teacher Network - New support for schoolyard gardens

Aug. 20 Network participants get a math-science lesson with eggs

Who can help us get a garden started? How can I teach math with farm produce? Can I really have chickens at school?

These were among the many topics covered at the first meeting of the Green Teacher Network. Two dozen Mecklenburg and Gaston educators and experts in fields ranging from health to fish farming came together on Aug. 20 to learn from one another about schoolyard gardening.

The Catawba River District, a leader in schoolyard gardening, is launching the network this fall with support from both school systems, local Cooperative Extension offices, Mecklenburg Health Department and numerous nonprofit groups including Friendship Gardens and the NC Wildlife Federation.

Interest in schoolyard gardens has soared in recent years. More than 100 Gaston and Mecklenburg schools now have vegetable gardens, and another 50 say they are planning to add them.

The Network’s introductory session took place at uptown Charlotte’s First Ward Creative Arts Academy – home to perhaps the most extensive schoolyard garden in the region. Clucking chickens in a portable coop greeting the participants and helped set one of the day’s themes: ways to teach math and science with eggs. The River District bought the chickens and coop – called a Chicken Tractor – last spring and have shared it for a week at a time with area schools.

Learning from each other

The No. 1 theme for the day, of course, was getting support from like-minded people.
“If you’re the teacher who has a school garden, you think, often, that you’re the only one doing it because you have this day-job kind of thing. You can’t just sit and call other teachers at other schools. So one of the best things we could do was to tie them together and let them talk with each other,” explained Cindy Klemmer, a horticulture expert who’s helping launch the Green Teacher Network.

Chickens "networked" too!

Judy Fisher, a parent volunteer who started a small garden last spring at McAlpine Elementary School, said she came to get ideas to take back to the teachers.

Angel Fleming, a teacher at River Oaks Academy, told the group about her school’s partnership with the Catawba River District to provide hands-on math and science instruction.  “We’ve experienced the chicken tractor. The eggs are great!” she said.

Resources for starting and nurturing garden programs

The day’s program included an overview by River District Executive Director Edna Chirico on what the Network hopes to accomplish, followed by presentations on local resources available to help schools launch gardens and make the most of their new teaching tool.

Henry Owen with Friendship Gardens explained how his program – a part of Friendship Meals – works with nearly 60 local school and community gardens to turn their surplus into nutritious meals for hundreds of homebound people across the region. Friendship Gardens also can help your school set up a garden, Owen said.

Another local resource is the NC Farm Bureau. Darlene Petranick, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg science teacher and instructor for the NC Farm Bureau, explained how teachers can get small grants to set up gardens and $500 awards to buy materials that support garden-focused learning.

“We have two winners in Mecklenburg County. They were awarded their checks of $500 last night,” Petranick said. “One of them wrote a grant for an iPad, because she found a ton of agriculture aps, and so she wanted an iPad so the kids could use the aps.”

Lessons with eggs

How big is a raw egg? 

One new challenge facing teachers this year is aligning their lessons with the state’s newly adopted Common Core curriculum standards. Using the day’s theme, Petranick presented several quick ways that teachers across several elementary grades can use eggs to teach math and science.

She even led participants through a hands-on lesson – designed for second graders - called “Mass and Matter. The room filled with conversation and occasional laughter as people struggled to wrap eggs in measuring tape without dropping them. But do you measure in inches or centimeters? Do you measure length or diameter?

Petranick stopped the experiment at this point but explained that the next step would normally be to record the results, boil the eggs and have the students take the measurements again. Boiling changes eggs from liquid to solid, she noted. Students would now discover whether the egg also changes size and weight.

She also reminded the group that a big part of learning happens as students talk with one another.
“The really cool thing about it is that adults are just grown-up kids,” she told the group, “so remember that the conversations you are having with each other are the same conversations that second-graders will have with each other.”
The Network will have its second meeting in mid-October. Participants were encouraged to sign up to receive email updates (see below).

Learn more

You can learn more about the Green Teacher Network by visiting CatawbaRiverDistrict.org or emailing Edna Chirico, the River District executive director.
Join the group’s mailing list by emailing a request to Rich Haag.

Get help with gardens

• NC Farm Bureau programs: ncagintheclassroom.com
• Friendship Gardens: friendship-gardens.org or email Henry Owen