STEM Garden and Life-cycles

Let it Grow integrated topic:

STEM connection: students design and plant a garden, following the engineering design process. (Alternative STEM connection could be Biomimicry, click here for resources)
Biology: living and non-living things, life-cycles
English: explanations of life-cycles
Classroom inspiration

Before

STEM Gardening Process

We used the Engineering Design Process to design and plant the garden.

engineering process

Students identified need: they believed students weren’t looking after the school garden areas.
Researched: we identified questions and researched using the internet and interviewed the school groundskeeper. Students were put into groups and needed to research possible vegetables and choose one their group would plant.
Possible Solutions: Students draw drafts of 4 possible garden designs
Select a promising solution: Students selected one of their designs to draw up in more detail. Staff selected 4 ‘finalist’ designs that students voted on. The class then discussed any alterations they wanted to make to the design.
Create: plant the garden, on-going maintenance and monitoring (graphing the plant growth).
Test/Evaluate: Redesign as needed: Reflect on the garden progress and make necessary on-going adjustments (eg. watering scheduled, pest control, additional shade)

Garden Design Examples

Gardening Ideas

Ziplock Bag Greenhouse: write names of seeds on the front of the bag, put in cotton wool, wet with spray bottle, put seeds in, tape to window where seeds will get necessary sunlight

Compostable & Biodegradable Seedling Pots: fold newspaper to make pot, add potting mix, add seeds, water.

***Paperclips could be used instead of staples. Then the paperclips could be removed before planting.

Bird Feeders: apples, gelatin, screw, string, birdseed and water.

Scarecrow:

copy 2.jpg

Cooking: Students did the following…

Researched possible recipes
Chose a recipe and provided a rational for why we should use their recipe . Teachers then chose a recipe, based on agreed success criteria.
Cooked Zucchini, Carrot and Cheddar fritters, using mostly school-grown ingredients.