School garden development

An organic school garden …coming into being

Nektarios TsagliotisTeacher-Researcher, 9th Primary School of Rethymno &

University of Crete ([email protected])

An initial school garden plan (2007)

An improved school garden plan (2008)

Wooden raised beds Built raised beds Compost chambers

Main entrance

Raised level garden

Greenhouse

Pond

Area: ~ 210 m2

This is how the place looked like in the beginning …not very promising …

August 2006 ...

School garden 2009-2010

First things first … building a fence and basic infrastructure with rain water drainage facilities (a)

First things first … building a fence and basic infrastructure with rain water drainage facilities (b)

Putting up the fence net …

Building up raised beds outside the fence for climbing plants … struggling with lots of soil all over the place

Building up the main corridor … a pathway to the garden

… measuring and arranging the base of the raised beds to be built

The first raised beds are being built …

Some soil is put inside the raised beds … and the watering pipes in between the gravel corridors are established

Time for action …!!! Planting the climbing plants on the garden fence with grade 6 children

More soil to be put inside the raised beds …come on, stand in the row and help … (a)

More soil to be put inside the raised beds …come on, stand in the row and help … (b)

Planting some vegetables … in May 2007… our first attempt to grow plants in the raised beds

Consortium of Countries and Schools of Comenius 1 Project“Solar Energy: Awareness & Action”

Escola AntréSoares Norte,

Braga

Colexio de Educación Infantil

e PrimariaFroebel, Galicia,

Pontevedra

Stella Maris College Junior

School

Scuola Secondaria di 1° Drado C.B. Cavour, Catania,

Sicilia

9th Primary school of Rethymno

Consortium of Countries and Schools of Comenius 1 Project“Solar Energy: Awareness & Action”

http://9dim-rethymn.reth.sch.gr/contents_en/Downloads/SEAA_Project%20Activities_2005-2008.pdf

Experimenting with a greenhouse model out of a cardboard box …

Constructing greenhouse models

Testing greenhouse models out in the school yard

Preparing seed plants for our small greenhouses set up in the garden … (a)

Preparing seed plants for our small greenhouses set up in the garden … (b)

Greenhouses … in action

Greenhouses … in action

Transplanting the seed plants in the raised beds

April 2008 …

Transplanting the seed plants in the raised beds

April 2008 …

Our plants are growing inside the raised beds

early May 2008 …

Our plants are growing inside the raised beds

late May 2008 …

This year we aimed high … for a bigger and permanent greenhouse

… and this is what we obtained (3,8 x 2,5 m)

Setting up the ground for the base of the greenhouse …

Setting up the base of the greenhouse …

Teachers’ group work in assembling the greenhouse …

December 2008 …



The finished greenhouse in its place …

The greenhouse … houses the seed-plants



Biodiversity … plants for important medical drugs

We get used to the idea of creating a garden ecosystem … our microcosmos !!!

We get used to the idea of creating a garden ecosystem … our microcosmos !!!

The first compound microscope circa 1595

Zacharias Janssen

circa 1580-1638

Middelburg microscope circa 1595

This inquiry is part of the research work undertaken by the Greek group for the HIPST project (History and Philosophy of Science in Science Teaching), which is funded within the 7th framework program, science in society-2007-2.2.1.2 - teaching methods (cf. URL: < http://hipst.eled.auth.gr >).

R. Hooke’s micrographia (1665)

Jardine, L. (2004). The curious life of Robert Hooke. HarperCollins Publishers Inc.: NY.

The microscope with 2 lenses …

Istituto e Museo di StoriaDella Scienza

Science Laboratory for Primary Education

The microscope with 3 lenses …

Istituto e Museo di StoriaDella Scienza

Science Laboratory for Primary Education

Octavo presentation of Micrographia

The worksheets on the seeds of thyme & petunias

The worksheet on the seeds of thyme

These pretty fruits here represented, in the 18. Scheme, are nothing else, but nine several seeds of Tyme; they are all of them in differing posture, both as to the eye and the light; nor are they all of them exactly of the same shape, there being a great variety both in the bulk and figure of each seed; but they all agreed in this, that being look'd on with a Microscope, they each of them exactly resembled a Lemmon or Orange dry'd; and this both in shape and colour. Some of them are a little rounder, of the shape of an Orange, as A and B, they have each of them a very conspicuous part by which they were join'd to their little stalk, and one of them had a little piece of stalk remaining on; the opposite side of the seed, you may perceive very plainly by the Figure, is very copped and prominent, as is very usual in Lemmons; which prominencies are express'd in D, E and F. …

A photo of seeds of thyme

Texts & drawings about the seeds of thyme

We observe that the A seed is a round one, whereas the B seed is somehow long, but the Γ seed is half and miserable.


The thyme seeds look nearly the same under the microscope and the naked eye. Some have bumps and others have peaks and they look like lemons, oranges, olives and some look like “choco pop” cereals. Most of them have some small “bumps” than others who have “scratches”. Most with the scratches look like nuts, whereas those with bumps look like the skin of a rotten orange and their colour is black brown or brown with black.


The seeds of thyme remind me of lemons or oranges. They are all in different position. There is a great variety in the volume and shape of the seeds. The seeds under the microscope have a black or a brown colour. The seeds are nosey or common like lemons. Every time we observe things they are not as we see them. The seeds look bigger and different than we see them with the naked eye. Thus, we should never say we see something unless we observe it with other methods like the microscope etc.

Planting the with the pomegranate tree 2nd grade children

Planting a raised bed with vegetables, 5th grade children



At the raised bed of spinach and parsley

At the raised bed with cauliflower & rocket

At the raised bed with salads & red cabbages

Spinach … party

Spinach … party

Spinach … party

Spinach … party

Spinach … party

… spinach with rise

… basic idea… and some

more …

Bottle biology … decomposition column

… the basic idea

… home composters

Building up a two compartment compost chamber …

Starting a compost chamber … with a few layers

… this is what we did, let’s see how ...

… at the Science Laboratory for Primary Education (SLPE), 9th Primary School of Rethymno, Crete, Greece

This is the group for starting the compost chamber …

… let’s see the process from the beginning

The children want to have a try …

… Demetrius is giving it a go

The “green fruit” of our effort …

… well done!!!

Time to take it to the compost chamber …

… let’s go composting

Into the compost chamber it goes too ..

… spreading it all around

… spreading it all around

And now, more soil into the compost compartment…

Inside the compost compartment that is …

… OK, we know what to do now

The compost compartment from top …

… looking good

Watering the compost pile …

… Helen, Katerina and Alta are watering the

compost pile

It appears we have finished … for the moment

… more layers to be added soon

Children of the third grade continue …

… one more layer of greens


… at the compost


… spread them nicely

Planting potatoes at the wooden raised beds …

… preparation


… digging the parterres


… preparation for planting


… planting at the parterres


… planting at the parterres


… end of planting


… protection for cats


… a group work for adding some extra soil at the potato

roots


… a group work for adding some extra soil at the potato

roots


… commenting on the result


… the final result

Potatoes … excavation

… we will start in a minute


… let’s line up for the process


… some help from the teacher


… where are those potatoes???


Oh, there is one!!!

Potatoes … excavationThe production of one raised bed

Wait … those go to the compost … OK???


… leaving everything nice and tidy for the next class

I do not know whether we could have a garden in every school ...

... but there is definitely a school in every garden!

Thank you for your attention