One way to help reconnect today's children to the outdoors is through gardening. Schoolyard gardens are places where students not only learn about wildlife species and ecosystems, but also become outdoor classrooms where they hone their academic skills and nurture their innate curiosity and creativity.
Register for the web seminar for teachers from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Feb. 8. Presentations will demonstrate how gardens can be started, maintained, and incorporated into instructional activities.
This web seminar is being offered as part of PollinatorLIVE: A Distance Learning Adventure through the National Science Teachers Association. PollinatorLIVE is offering a variety of interactive learning events and activities for students and teachers.
Mike Hill, landscape architect with the Forest Service, will discuss how to get a schoolyard garden started, including deciding where to put the garden, determining how large it will be and deciding who will be involved.
Martin Bomar is a parent volunteer at Ashland Elementary School in Prince William County, Virginia, an employee of the USDA Farm Service Agency in Washington D.C. and a member of Master Gardeners and the USDA People’s Garden Initiative. He will discuss how gardens can be used for hands-on learning opportunities for young students. The school staff, students, and parents created an Earth Day Garden in spring 2009. Since then, the garden evolved to ensure the outdoor area would support and enhance concepts within all six grade levels of Virginia’s Science Standards of Learning. Ten major areas of teaching emphasis were developed in the garden to accomplish this goal.
For more information about this educational Webinar or about PollinatorLIVE, please contact Tamberly Conway at tkconway@fs.fed.us or call 936-639-8558.