Ed White Middle School students are getting hands-on experience in the NEEF-funded garden beds. Their seventh-grade science teacher, Carmen Keane, points out that her students are planting seasonal flowers that day. Other times, garden vegetables are being grown along with some companion plants. For many of these students, this has been their first opportunity to dig into the soil and watch a plant grow from seed to edible vegetable.
By adding the “A Time to Grow” project into campus learning, students get practical science lessons, learn about where their food comes from, and how to make healthier dietary choices. Moving the classroom outside has residual mental health and wellness benefits.
Another science teacher, Melissa Flowers explains that they are “composting the waste from the chicken coop to then put into the garden beds.” The chicken coop is another NEEF funded project that supports an after-school learning program with the “Chicken Tenders.” Ed White Middle School’s teachers have incorporated two grants into a whole lesson on animal and plant environmental cycles.
NEEF innovative grants such as these are meant to further the curriculum at our campuses to ensure student success.