The Classroom Greenhouse

Core Curriculum Cultivated

There’s an adage in teaching that goes “show one, do one, teach one.” If you want to teach anyone a new skill you first show them how, then you let them do it themselves and finally you let them teach someone else. It uses all parts of the brain and makes the lesson more effective because you go from hearing the lesson (and writing about it) to hands on learning and then combining everything by teaching someone else. If you want to really help a student get the full relevance of a lesson, really take it all in, you need a classroom greenhouse at your school.

All of the hands-on learning students experience is exciting. It gets kids out of their seats and in touch with nature. They learn about their responsibility to the planet and, by growing food, about the larger issues of global sustainability. And the best part is they can teach what they are learning to other students – even teachers learn from the students’ learning.

So how do you go about funding your own classroom greenhouse? There are a number of sources for grants including:

Specialty Crop Grant: This can be used for seeds, classroom packages and accessories
Conservation Innovation Grant: Can be used with water conservation in the greenhouse, curriculum teaching about conservation (the greenhouse would be a part of this curriculum)
USDA Rural Development: Public schools are eligible for grants to help in teaching sustainability and agriculture in areas of under 50,000 residents
Farm to School: An organization that helps get fresh produce from local suppliers to school lunches (and your greenhouse can grow this!)
Lowe’s Toolbox for Education: Committed to providing tools to help educators
Home Depot Foundation: Community impact grant
Shopko Foundation: Committed to helping students succeed in school and become self sufficient adults
Walmart Foundation: key areas of focus: Opportunity, Sustainability and Community.
And many more – start with this website