Adding STEM education

School gardening isn't all about the gardening. Use the rainwater harvesting to create a real life applied math lesson by figuring how much rain can be collected from a certain amount of rainfall. The formula is rainfall x square footage x .63 (gallons per inch). Then divide by the number of gutters. Times by the number of rainwater harvesting tanks.

Or, measure the amount of water used by a drip irrigation system. 

Both of these math lessons are explained by this video we made in 2009; http://extension.arizona.edu/4h/content/video/measuring-water-consumption

Or, incorporate photosynthesis into the plant science lessons as described in this video; http://extension.arizona.edu/4h/content/video/plant-germination-video

However, the real lesson that we found that was valuable in the school gardening experience was the wealth of knowledge youth learned as they shot video footage, designed storyboards, wrote scripts, and developed hands-on videos that taught others. Through the use of technology, youth researched science information that they otherwise would never have learned. 

This journal article was written about the project featured in this blog; Growing Gardens with Captured Rainwater . . . and Video

Read the introduction to the school gardening curriculum that was written this year (all aligned to science standards, available upon request):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yodPs50NEYzS7VaCZgFjHEFaAPCR904jaccC-aJXibM/edit?hl=en_US#

Curriculum Intro

Seeds and Soil Go Together

There are multiple ways to plant seeds. They can be germinated indoors with grow lights, hardened off and planted in your outdoor garden. You can directly seed them outdoors, grown them hydroponically (in water only), or about any way you choose.
For most of the school and afterschool gardens I have helped create, we have worked on the idea of creating a scientific variable for the garden. That means we have a control plot of a raised or sunken bed with enhanced soil. We enhance the soil with fertilizer, organic matter of compost and/or horse or chicken manure, and then sift the soil to get any rocks out. To determine how much fertilizer to use, we purchase a soil testing kit from the local gardening center and follow those directions.

For directions on making a sunken bed garden, see this video we made in 2009; http://extension.arizona.edu/4h/content/video/sunken-bed-gardening

The variable we use for our gardens becomes our straw bale gardening beds. Yup, straw bales are used as garden beds. The idea is simple. Arizona has poor, rocky soil. It requires a huge amount of digging, tilling, and soil enhancement to grow anything. There are lots of weeds in a traditional garden that require quite a bit of bending. By using straw bales, you can just place the straw bales on the ground, treat them with a fertilizer solution to increase decomposition, plant seeds or bedding plants, water, there are few weeds, and you can even garden from a folding chair so folks in wheelchairs or with back problems can easily enjoy gardening.

For directions on preparing a straw bale garden, see this video; http://extension.arizona.edu/4h/content/video/straw-bale-gardening

Creating School Gardens

First comes water:

Soil, seeds, sunlight, and water are the four basic ingredients for successful gardens. But sometimes those are not as easy to come by on a school site. In arid climates of the southwest, water can be scarce. The use of rainwater harvesting can increase the sustainability of a school garden as it erases the need for convenient groundwater based faucets, and is easy to install.
Here is a video we made in 2009 of how to install a rainwater harvesting system. Easy!

http://extension.arizona.edu/4h/content/video/rainwater-harvesting