Students Plant Seeds To A Greener Future
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NY1 and parent company Time Warner Cable continue their partnership with Connect A Million Minds, highlighting education through science, technology, engineering and math. NY1's Tara Lynn Wagner filed the following report on a program that is helping to promote green thumbs in schools across the city.In classrooms across the five boroughs, teachers are trading textbooks for planters through the City Parks program Learning Gardens. At PS140 in the Bronx, Learning Gardens is giving some third graders an opportunity to learn about nature first hand.
"This program started in failing schools 13 years ago. We wanted to go back to connecting to the parks and we built these gardens. And we administer these gardens where we teach alongside community teachers," said City Parks Foundation Education Director Claudia Demegret.
The environmental education idea is simple -- students build a community garden, combined with a series of scientific lessons and then invite the community to continue upkeep of the garden throughout the year.
"When you say global warming for a seven or eight year old, that's a very sophisticated concept, but when you can bring it down and say, act locally, that it makes more sense for them to take more pride in their neighborhood and respect nature," said PS140 Assistant Principal Colleen Burke.
"In that garden, we have recent Bangladeshi immigrants with people who came from Mexico, African-Americans from the south and Puerto Ricans, and they really meet in a different way so it is a powerful experience," Demegret said.
Applied learning in the garden is also helping the third graders understand the world around them.
"I like about we plant together. We explore, observe our plants that we plant in the garden," said one student.
"Nature has some good stuff like trees, wood, and flowers, and paper, and things we can use," said another student.
Other than learning the facts, the students are developing a new appreciation for the scientific world that will grow larger as they do.
"They're developing a love of this process, gathering observations, using their senses as tools, using language and body language to explore scientific concepts," said Learning Gardens educator Geimy Colon.
For more information on Learning Gardens and other science education opportunities, visit www.connectamillionminds.com.