Tohoku International School, located in Sendai, Japan, has a small student population. As with every good school, we are constantly working to make learning meaningful and exciting for our students. Last year teachers on the elementary team got together and made plans for a way to utilize the space behind our school that was not being used. It was decided we would make five small gardens, one for each class in elementary and one for the secondary students, plus a physical activity space and a shaded area. A few teachers, Mr. Dwyer and Ms. Risker, had experience with gardening and they shared their knowledge with everyone else to get us started.
The older elementary students were given the task of planning how we would layout the gardens. This was a great way to incorporate the geometric concepts of area, perimeter, and measurement authentically. Students also learned about the environment. They were able to observe how plants start as seeds and how they grow. Over the course of the summer and into the autumn, they could see the plant develop seeds and then see the end of the life cycle. For me, the most impressive learning that happened was the sense of responsibility that was developed. Some students took it upon themselves to start taking care of the garden: including the watering and weeding. It was exactly the characteristics that we, as a school, are trying to instill into our students.
The garden has not only been a learning experience for the students, but I found myself learning along the way as well. As we were preparing the soil, one student found a large white larvae in the scoop of dirt. I asked around to see what it was until one of the maintenance men told me that it was a kabuto mushi … or maybe a different kind of beetle. The only way we could find out what kind of beetles they were was by keeping them in our room and taking care of them. Then with the help of my class, I had to find out how to take care of them. My own class was not the only one involved with this, all classes were able to come in and observe them, touch them, and ask questions about them. I had students and teachers bring in materials about beetles in both Japanese and English so we could talk about them and see if what we read matched what we were seeing; to see if what we were doing was the right was to raise them.
As with all great inquiry experiences, the garden allowed us to question - What should the design of the garden look like? Which way should the rows go? What should we plant?, What will grow in Sendai?, think - How will the rows affect the way the plants grow? What would the best seeds be to plant?, discover - When making the garden we found dozens of kabuto beetle larvae that we kept in an aquarium in the classroom, and investigate - The students were able to experiment with how they planted seeds and were able to see the fruits of their labor.
Not only is the garden a great addition to our school curriculum, we also used the opportunity to center our summer school program around the garden. The green area has since expanded to include Bug City, an area that we have set aside to grow free to attract insects (which we call microbeasts). Bug City has in turn taken on a life all its own and has attracted so many bugs that it is now attracting birds and we have now a mini ecosystem in addition to the garden areas.
We have just planted the second round of crops. This time we planted a winter vegetable, daikon, or Asian radishes, and the learning cycle has started again. For many of us, it is the first time we are seeing diakon sprout and start to grow and new questions are emerging. I cannot wait to see how this space will continue to evolve. One of my favorite parts of education is seeing students take what they have learned and experiment, tinker, and play with those concepts for themselves with their own time. The green area gives them the impetus to do that.
