Gardening Exploration Assignment

EDT 3470 Trista Kelly
Amber Malburg
Gardening Investigation

Students will be learning about gardening. Once students research different aspects of gardening, particularly in our area, they will begin communication with another group of students via ePals. Students will interview other students from Mexico in order to learn about their gardening methods and techniques. The following description will provide some guidance. Please feel free to add more details to the assignment if you would like.

* The students with whom we will communicate: 6th graders from Xochimilco, Mexico.
* At what point in the project will the students contact the students in Mexico?
Once our students have researched adequate information regarding gardening methods used in our region (Michigan), they can begin interviewing students from Mexico. Our students will research the following information, and then ask the other students similar information.

1) What does it mean to garden?
2) What resources/materials must be available to begin and maintain a garden?
3) Where can you grow a garden?
4) How do you maintain a garden?
5) Research different types of gardens. List two types you have seen.
6) What kinds of plants can be grown in a garden?
7) List 5 plants/crops that you would like to grow in your garden.
a. Do you have the resources, environment, and climate available to grow these?

* Your next task will be to connect with a group of students from a different region in the world.

You will be responsible for asking them questions regarding the type of garden and gardening techniques they use where they live. After your first communication, you will use google maps to locate the region in which your new friends live. Why do you think they use different gardening techniques based on their location? Using google maps, what features of this city make their type of gardening possible? Why?

Keep a gardening journal and compare the different gardening methods. You can add any information you want, but be sure to include a description of the kinds of gardens we grow, the type of garden the students in Mexico grow, the resources we each need, and how we maintain the different gardens. You may find many similarities and differences that should be noted in some way in your gardening journal.

Later on in our project, we will begin to make our own garden. We will continue collaborating with our friends from Mexico, and record the different steps and stages of our gardens. This will allow our students to learn the different stages of chinampa gardening in comparison to gardening here in Michigan. Students will send pictures of their gardens as the project progresses.