By Catherine Estes

You might be a master at giving quizzes, but how are you at taking them? Here’s a quick one for you—let’s see if you know the answer to this complex question. Question: How can you combat “nature-deficit disorder”* in your students; meet academic standards; beautify your school grounds; revitalize your teaching; engage others in your school/ workplace/ community; and do something good for the environment? Answer: With schoolyard gardens and outdoor classrooms. (Did you get it right?)

Student planting an aquatic plant in the wetland area of the new garden.

PLT supports schoolyard garden projects through our GreenWorks! grant program and curriculum materials that link the outdoors to important scientific and environmental principles and your required teaching. Recently, the National PLT program partnered with other Washington, DC area environmental organizations and agencies on a program that further supports creating sustainable schoolyard gardens in DC schools. The program is called “Greener Schools, Cleaner Water” and is a partnership among PLT, the DC Department of Environment (DOE)-Watershed Protection Division, the Potomac Conservancy (PC), the Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF), and DC schools. Each partner contributes a different piece to the project. PLT provides Environmental Education (EE) professional development and some ongoing support to the schools in the program; the DOE provides funding to the schools and partners and provides some ongoing support to the schools; PC provides assistance on schoolyard garden designs, choice of plants, plant delivery, and garden implementation; and CBF provides summer professional development opportunities for teachers at the schools by taking them out on the Chesapeake Bay and facilitating “Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences.” Participating DC schools in turn commit to attending three four-hour trainings, maintaining a School Garden Team, involving students in every stage of the school garden development process, and coordinating “Action Days” to prepare for and plant the schoolyard garden.

Seaton students show off their outdoor classroom with visitors from Japan.

Seaton Elementary School was one school involved in the program last year. Bri Dougherty-Brill, Sixth Grade Teacher, took the lead on coordinating the project for the school. Bri regularly took her class outside to the schoolyard to prep the area for planting, plant and maintain the site, and conduct EE activities. Seaton planted trees, created a wetland area, planted raised garden beds, and developed an outdoor classroom with donated tree stumps that were painted by the students. It was remarkable to see the students take ownership of the schoolyard garden. The smiles on their faces as they pruned bushes, planted trees, and shared their favorite parts of the garden made this apparent. Bri remarked, "My students always looked forward to our outdoor excursions in our school garden. I found that the most rewarding part of the experience was that the garden enabled the students to see that there is beauty and life in their city and that they could be a part of it. Many students, who typically struggled in the classroom, come back to tell me that they have started a small garden of their own...or now help at the local co-op garden. I can tell that they really got something out of the experience that changed their lives."

Mel Jones, Science Teacher at Burroughs Elementary School, another school involved in the Greener Schools program, sums up what their new schoolyard garden has meant to her school community— "The garden has been transformed from a barren lot to an urban oasis, where children can play and learn. It has created a sense of purpose and unity within our school and community. Teachers can use the garden as a place to connect math, science, and reading concepts to the real world. Hundreds of students have enjoyed the opportunity to see, touch, smell, and hear the wonders of the natural world within a few steps of their classroom. Thanks to the garden, they now have a personal connection to the Anacostia river and care about protecting it."

PLT helps teachers make these personal connections for their students in the schoolyard by providing activities that are correlated to academic standards and that teach key concepts in a hands-on, interdisciplinary way. Some useful PLT activities for the schoolyard include the PreK-8 Guide’s Schoolyard Safari; Get in Touch with Trees; Poet-Tree; Adopt a Tree; Trees as Habitats, The Fallen Log; Have Seeds, Will Travel; Looking at Leaves; Bursting Buds; and Soil Stories. Activities within several of PLT’s secondary modules, also connect well to the schoolyard and surrounding community.

Seaton Students proudly showing off their School Conservation Site sign.

Many of these PLT activities have been used in the “Greener Schools, Cleaner Water” program. While the program is a local D.C. effort, you can certainly consider taking certain components of it (like using PLT activities) and building it into your own program. Here are some components of the program and additional thoughts to think about when considering a schoolyard garden project:

• Attend a PLT workshop to obtain curriculum resources.
• Create a School Garden Team made up of teachers, grounds staff, administrators, and community volunteers (this ensures sustainability of the project).
• Investigate potential community partners (landscape architects, garden nurseries, environmental organizations and government agencies). Contact your PLT State Coordinator for additional ideas.
• Lack financial resources? If you are PLT trained, why not apply for a GreenWorks! grant? 
• Engage Students at every stage of the development process. This can be a great real-world learning experience for them and will help them to take ownership of the project.
• Think about unique challenges that might affect your school community such as vandalism and how you might combat those issues. (movement activated night lights, neighborhood patrols, student presentations to other grade levels not as involved in the project, etc.)
• Need some research to back-up a school garden project? Check out the DC Schoolyard Greening Website. 

Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy, D.C. “Action Day” – May 23, 2007

The “Greener Schools, Cleaner Water” program emphasizes the connection between the design of schoolyards and the health of the local watershed. Native plants support native wildlife and also require less fertilizer and pesticides than nonnative plants; rain gardens hold stormwater runoff, filter it, and slowly release it; more landscaping and less impervious surface means less runoff entering nearby creeks and rivers. All of these features of school gardens equate to a healthier watershed and community. When students and teachers participate in a school garden project, they are not only creating a healthier environment in their community, but also a more meaningful and enriching learning environment that might just lead to a better community all around.  

*"Nature-deficit disorder” was coined by Richard Louv in Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder.

Catherine Estes is Senior Manager, Curriculum and Outreach for Project Learning Tree.