Growing Children and Plants

This article features teachers Suzanne Stark and Todd Swanson that are no longer at the schools.

If ever there were the perfect growing medium to nourish and nurture students' minds and imaginations, the GrowLab^® program is the tool. The essence of the GrowLab^® program is actual hands-on growing in a controlled environment. Students plant seeds and see them develop into plants, perhaps to eat, perhaps to enjoy their beauty. They start, follow through, and finish with a tangible result.

The National Garden Bureau, along with The National Gardening Association donate six GrowLabs to selected schools each year. Not only do teachers get an actual growing laboratory, but they also receive curriculum materials to help them get started, resource videos, and visits from horticulturists to answer questions, offer support and even hand out seeds. One teacher commented that the GrowLab^® was the perfect size - large enough to do great experiments, but small enough to move from classroom to classroom.

Although the GrowLab^® can be used to do standard seed-starting and growing on, its efficiency gives teachers a place to start and then explore all manner of growing. The programs the teachers develop include growing seeds in different media and light conditions, experimenting with all different kinds of seeds, exploring plant growth processes and all the parts of a plant, and even producing a viable product to plant, taste or sell.

The enthusiasm from the teachers using GrowLabs is infectious. Suzanne Stark from St. Bernadette School in Lakewood, Colorado uses the GrowLab^® with her 7th grade science students. They experiment with different kinds of light and soils such as clay and gravel, to see how they affect roots and plant growth. Another aspect of their experimenting is with different fertilizers. Ms. Stark lets them choose their material, allowing them to try anything out of the ordinary (within reason, of course), sometimes with not-so-pleasant results. One student tried orange juice, which Ms. Stark says, "only gets moldy and is gross." But the student learned from her experiment. Another student tried milk, assuming, "If milk is good for me, it must be good for the plant." The results are still out on this one!

This year Ms. Stark's classes are going to try growing bedding plants to sell for an outdoor lab program. The sixth grade students made compost in their classroom, and the seventh grade will try to grow plants in it. This is an example of a superb project to help promote teamwork among the students, especially with such a tangible result.

One of the seventh grade's on-going projects is plant propagation. As Ms. Stark says, "The librarian has lots of plants. She prunes, gives us the cuttings, and then we see if they will grow." What better way to explain the intricacies of plant development than to propagate them?

One of her favorite anecdotes involves their radish-growing contest last year. The students competed to see who could grow the biggest and best radish, and the results were judged at the end of the year. The students got to eat their products after the contest was over. She says the biggest radish was beautiful. "It was the perfect radish, round and big." Then when the student was told he could taste it, with everyone watching, his reaction was "Not me, I hate them." So, some students come away deciding not to be gardeners, but at least this student had the experience of knowing exactly how a radish grows and what he had to do to bring it to market.

In the same school, the fourth grade also uses a GrowLab^®, with their orientation more geared toward "journaling". They keep data and write their observations as they use simple growing programs. Their program involves more writing and reading about basic plant processes where the seventh grade program is more geared to experimentation.

Todd Swanson of the J.B. Nelson School in Batavia, Illinois teaches fifth grade. An avid gardener himself, he formed an after-school garden club for his students. They used the GrowLab^® last year to grow perennials from seed. He mentioned that the lower grades do a lot of experimenting with soils and light, so when he gets the students they are quite familiar with the GrowLab^®. "They get really excited when I bring it out in early spring."

Mr. Swanson talks quite a bit about gardening in class, but since not all kids are interested in becoming really involved, he formed the after-school group. As he says, "The kids who want to be there are the ones who will show up." And they do.

The Nelson School has a unique situation in that it is designed with four wings surrounding a courtyard. Last year Mr. Swanson's class grew plants for an accent perennial garden with foxgloves, delphiniums, lupines, and some "really cool plants like cardoon." The students became quite involved in rototilling and setting out the plants in one section of the courtyard. He says, "The students end up taking a lot of ownership of the gardens since they are so involved in the entire process."

This year, the courtyard has one final area to plant, and Swanson's students are already making plans for it, with a special emphasis on butterfly gardening.

When asked what was his best memory of last year, he mentioned that when the liaisons for the GrowLab^® program came to talk to the class about growing things, he told the students that they were coming and set aside some class time. The students who weren't interested had the typical reaction, not interested. After the visit, these students ended up being the ones that were the most enthusiastic, many of them eager to give gardening a try. Of course, as Mr. Swanson mentions, "It could have been the seeds they handed out." Whatever works!

The National Garden Bureau considers children's gardening one of its most important missions. The nonprofit organization intends to continue donating GrowLabs to schools through the 21st century.

For more information about donating a GrowLab^® and other educational programs, write to the National Gardening Association, 1100 Dorset Street, South Burlington, VT 05403, call 1-800LETSGRO, or visit their website at www.kidsgardening.com.