For 10 students in the Allen County School District’s Gifted and Talented Program, the summer of 2014 was a chance to get their hands dirty---by experiencing first hand the challenges and rewards of gardening.
Embry Pierce, Cole Meador, Aidan Davis, Aaron Shain, Veronica Walker, Sarah Davis, Allison Davis, Sadie Halloway, Austin Stinson, and Douglas Werner participated in a summer gardening program under the supervision of Allen County Gifted and Talented coordinator Vicki Cooper.
“I developed a six-week extensive and intensive unit involving lesson study, research, experiments, and activities, as well as very specific instructions for developing their student journals,” Cooper explained. “I also developed activities for parents to be involved and a place where they could reflect as well. I organized everything into a plan and gave parents calendars to post onto their refrigerators to keep up with everything including watering cycles.”
The project began immediately after the end of the school year as the students were able to use a garden base already in place at the Allen County Intermediate Center. Then, collaborating with the Family Resource Center for help with funding for materials, the students were supplied with seeds and given their instructions and guidelines.
“We met on the Saturday after school was out and planted seeds and the students painted their signs for their different vegetables,” Cooper added. “This is where they got their materials to complete all the lessons and experiments.”
The students took charge of the project at that point---a project which kept the students and their parents involved throughout the summer.
“It was a way for me to connect with nature,” explained student Veronica Walker. “I usually stay inside reading a book or playing a video game. It was also pretty fun to do the rain gauge every day and that helped me with my math.”
For Veronica’s mother, Jolene, the program was rewarding in that she was able to witness her daughter getting excited about learning and seeing her being able to learn in a real world way.
“Veronica was so excited about growing things at school,” explained Jolene Walker, “She really got in to it. Seeing her getting excited about the project was great. They had to keep a rain gauge for the time of the project so that mean she had to do math. If you talk to her about practicing math any other time, she would tell you she hated it. But, when it came time to check the rain gauge she was perfectly happy. Every time we went out there it was an exciting time. I also learned some things myself like growing green beans which I had never grown before. It’s inspired us to start our own garden next year.”
Walker’s student partners also enjoyed the project and learning about the all the aspects of raising food and plants.