Archive for 2009

Here are two other great resources for Garden-Based Learning Instruction. They can be found and reviewed here The Growing Classsroom This award-winning resource book for educators contains 480 pages of science, math, and language arts activities that you can do with your students in the garden. Activities are aligned with California Science Content Standards. Topics include soil, plants, cycles, ecology, weather, nutrition, and food systems. ... Full story

Written by Nora Schutz, Berlin Germany NEUROSCIENCE could do for schools what biomedical research has done for healthcare. That's the conclusion of the Decade of the Mind (DOM) symposium last week in Berlin, Germany, to discuss how the latest findings could be used to improve education. click for more info Full story

Math in the Garden, This wonderful Book is developed through a partnership of University of California Botanical Garden and Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley, California. This book is for Educator/Parents with students Age 5-13. ISBN-13: 978-0-915873-46-3 Full story

PUMPKIN CIRCLE: The Story of A Garden. The Story of A Garden is an award-winning video and picture book, produced by George Levenson. This project is designed to show elementary school children the miraculous cycle of nature in a backyard pumpkin patch. Pumpkin Circle is a 20 minute live action video narrated in verse by Danny Glover with original music by George Winston. The video ... Full story

Model for Garden-Based Education in School Settings: A Tool for Educators,   Abbey Jaramillo, Executive Director of Urban Sprouts has posted their one-day training information online. Use this model to plan and evaluate your program. As you plan your lessons, use the Program Design box as a checklist to make sure the overall program enhances the school’s curriculum, physical and social learning environments in as ... Full story

Gardens are powerful educational tools, providing opportunities for children to experience the natural world as they develop strong academic skills and positive attitudes toward fresh fruits and vegetables, and learn important sociological skills that enhance the quality of ... Full story

Writing in Friday’s (June 17) edition of the journal Science, researchers report that this shift is being driven by three principles that are emerging from cross-disciplinary work: learning is computational, learning is social, and learning is supported by brain circuits linking perception and action that connect people to one another. This new science of learning, the researchers believe, may shed light into the origins ... Full story

By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY "New insights from many different fields are converging to create a new science of learning that may transform educational practices," begins a report led by Andrew Meltzoff of the University of Washington in Seattle. The review in the current Science magazine makes the case for psychologists, neuroscientists, roboticists and teachers combining to quietly create a new field that combines everything ... Full story

                          Skills they will practice: communicating, sorting, categorizing Tape a large sheet of paper to the wall and record kids thoughts there.  Introduction : "We are going to be talking about how plants and certain insects depend on each other and why it is important to us."  Participants brainstorm about all the plants they can name. ... Full story

  Goals: To understand the interdependence of certain plants and the insects that pollinate them  To understand the process of pollination  To become aware of how people depend on pollinators for food  Background Material (Note: Background material is designed to provide helpful information to educators. It is not intended to be shared directly with participants.)    Pollination is central to successful reproduction in most plants. Simply stated, it is the transfer of pollen ... Full story