Did you know that chewing basil can freshen bad breath? That's what the kids at Williamstown Public Schools did, and they learned it from some discoveries they made growing their own: hydroponics.
Meet Rose MacCulloch, a kindergarten teacher at this progressive rural school in eastern Ontario, who uses a hands-on, life-experience approach to her teaching that arouses great curiosity.
The addition of a ‘ZipGarden’ in her classroom has ignited a spark of plant learning in these energetic and curious students, you could say she teaches a different form of ABC's to her students, (Always Be Curious).
Mrs MacCulloch has been teaching for over 30 years.She explains how the children's genuine curiosity about hydroponic systems led to many questions that took learning in all directions and across all curriculum areas.‘When we started placing seedlings on felt core strips, some students wanted to know how we would add soil. We saw some sceptical faces when they were told there would be no soil. We decided to plant some seedlings in soil as well and put them on the windowsill. A month later, we no longer had any doubts; in fact, these 5-year-old students concluded that the plants in the ZipGarden grew faster.
Over the course of the four weeks, the discussions leading up to this statement demonstrated their understanding and confusion along the way. There is no better way for children to understand how things work in our world than through authentic learning.
Literacy skills come into play immediately as students learn new vocabulary. We introduced the nutrient packets that we add to the water every fortnight. The students believe that the nutrients we add to the plants make them grow, just like the chewable vitamins they take to keep them healthy and growing. The plants grow vertically in our gardens, not horizontally like the gardens we grow outside.
Our kindergarten students love to label things in the classroom and plants are the new thing that needs to be labelled.
They spelled lettuce (letus) and kale (kal) phonetically as they independently made labels. When the students wanted to know which plants grew the fastest, we incorporated maths. We tied a piece of string around one leaf of each plant. Using non-standard measuring tools, students measured the same leaves, collected data every three days, and recorded the results on a chart.
We discussed how our ‘garden’ is set on a timer so that our plants get 12 hours of light a day. The students felt that on cloudy days, the plants outside sometimes don't get as much light.
Of course, the best part of our ‘garden’ was having the kids take home the harvest; bags of lettuce, kale and basil that they could share with their families. Parents share in the pride their children feel when they use vegetables and herbs they've grown in their homemade salads or pizzas.’
One of the educational implications: water is life
As part of the Town of South Glengarry's sustainability programme, the classroom also provides the school with a composting system. The composter is used daily along with the children's food scraps from lunch, fruit peels, etc. to create more organic and nutritious soil.
Educational Implications No. 2: The Cycle of Life
A child's mind is a little sponge, and the children of Williamstown Public Schools are sure to soak up all of this knowledge in plant science, technology, engineering and maths.
Intelligent grow cabinets used in education
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