Schools

Fresh air, green thumbs

Students in this science class get dirt under their nails learning lessons in gardening.

By PAULETTE LASH RITCHIE, Times Correspondent
Published September 13, 2007

Payton Booker (left) and Brittney Bowman pull weeds from the garden at the school. The garden is used to help better illustrate lessons.
	[Ron Thompson | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Ron Thompson | Times] Olivia Zambito uses an umbrella to shade herself while completing a lesson related to the garden at J.D. Floyd Elementary School.

SPRING HILL - Lisa Crooks' science classroom can be found in a village of portables at a far end corner of J.D. Floyd Elementary School.

Paths among the structures are mulched. Areas between some of them are pleasantly improved with fish and turtle ponds.

Then there is Crooks' garden.

The 32-year-old science teacher encourages hands-on activities among her students, down in the dirt. On a recent warm morning, a class of fifth-graders was scurrying around the garden involved in a multitude of activities.

Some were yanking up weeds. Others were tossing compost on plants. One was working a garden claw, churning the ground to loosen weeds. Some raked. A plastic snake and fake owl acted as sentinels against birds.

They are growing banana peppers, green and red peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and eggplants.

"We started working on it the second week of school," said Ashley Ramos, 10. She has a favorite. "I like pumpkins," she said.

The garden actually began a couple of weeks earlier.

Crooks started before the school year began, using a $750 grant from the Hernando County Education Foundation. She has spent some of the money and has expansion plans.

Part of the Sunshine State Standards for her students is to learn the parts of plants. Crooks' students watch the parts in action: stems gaining height, flowers blooming. They pick the fruit and shake dirt from the roots. They prepare soil, plant, weed, water and harvest.

They make their own pesticide from the hot peppers they grow along with garlic. Mixed with water, Crooks said, the peppers and garlic make a natural pesticide. She has noticed they have no insect problems.

Crooks likes to present problems to the students and get them to figure out ways to solve them. "We can discuss the scientific method," she said.

They had some hot pepper plants that were doing very well. Another one, located away from the others, was not. Crooks put the question before the children. The struggling plant was farthest from the sprinkler, they suggested, and not getting enough water. They moved the plant.

So far the students have been working with plants that had already been established for them. Crooks encourages them to bring in plants or seeds.

"It gives them ownership," she said.

Crooks uses school vegetative waste for compost. "We are going to ask the custodians for their grass clippings," she said. She also has the children using another consumable to hold water in the soil and to help eliminate weeds: newspaper.

The students seem to enjoy the lessons and appreciate the garden.

Alexis Greenstein, 10, has an idea about how plants might grow more successfully. "You need to have sunlight and water almost every single day and, if you talk to them, they might grow a little better."

Billy Swift, 10, sees lots of benefits from his newly acquired green thumb. "It is a good idea to have a garden because it teaches us how to be gentle with plants, how to grow plants and if we need this in the future, we can use it."

As for Crooks, she is just getting started. The garden itself is growing and she still has $400 to spend. "I'm a bargain shopper," she said.

[Last modified September 12, 2007, 20:26:09]