In the northern part of the state of New York (United States), a group of 13 students and their teachers learned about healthy eating habits by growing their own vegetable garden at school!
As part of their Alcoa W5 project, teachers at Nightengale Elementary aimed to educate their students on how to eat healthy, and how to plant and grow a garden for the whole school to enjoy. In the summer of 2022, the school had some Alcoa volunteers come help them build beautiful garden beds for the school’s outdoor area. The volunteers furthermore gave a hand putting soil in the garden beds and helped plant vegetables and herbs. Teachers, teacher aides, and more importantly students all came to help the volunteers with the construction of the garden!
By planting their own school’s garden, students grew some plants right from seed and were able to experience the whole process right up until the plants were placed in the ground. The students furthermore participated in transplanting the vegetables and herbs from their single pots into the planter beds.
“I like planting our garden because it is fun to plant seeds, watch them grow, and then plant them into our soil in our gardens.” - 6th Grade Student
But the process wasn’t without challenges, as the students of Nightengale had to adapt to harsh weather conditions, and the irregular weather patterns made it difficult to determine when the perfect time was to plant their garden. Nevertheless, they established that, due to the harsh winters in northern New York, gardens had to get weeded out before the snow came and had to be restarted at the beginning of spring. During winter, the plants were moved inside the classroom where the students took care of them until the weather allowed them to be replanted outside.
Through this project, students learned the importance of eating healthy and acquired relevant gardening skills. The process helped them understand how many people can benefit from one little garden and its produces, and therefore the significance of building such a garden in the community. Through this Alcoa project, students realized the significance of food and have learned that hunger is an issue in parts of the world, and that food should therefore be cherished. Finally, students have gained insights regarding the benefits of growing their own vegetables and herbs and have been able to enjoy some of the produce themselves.
“I think this project was very successful for our school as well as for our community. Our goal is to replant the garden beds every spring for the whole school to enjoy - even throughout the summer months!” – Teacher, Nightengale Elementary
The Alcoa W5 project of Castle North Middle School supports the following SDGs:
