Jeanne Bender’s class began their Earth Force project in mid-September by planting various flowers and a tree on their school grounds. With the help of Larry Stier from Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the class planted sunflowers, roses, daises, columbine flowers and even a blue spruce tree. “We learned that helping our environment and community is important,” exclaimed Portia, one of Ms. Bender’s enthusiastic students.
They began their inventory by taking a community walk. Armed with disposable cameras, they took pictures of green elements of their community. “This was certainly a wonderful experience for the students. It was hands-on and they had the opportunity to experience things like using a camera, something that they would have never done in the classroom,” stated Ms. Benal.
In February, the students were treated with a trip to The Philadelphia Flower Show, which was sponsored by Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. The students could not believe the variety of flowersthey saw.
Along with the planting done around the school grounds and attending the flower show, the students also had the opportunity to put on a Groundhog’s Day play for kindergarteners at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum. The students learned about Tim and Tina, the two local groundhogs of that area. After the play, Bache Martin students planted more flowers around the refuge. While planting, the students explored various types of birds, birds nesting, and one even claimed to have seen a bear house!
Josh, an enthusiastic student of Ms. Bender’s, stated early in the school year, “Wouldn’t it be great if we could have birds nesting around the school grounds?” After considering this, the students decided that they would plant trees around an area that would attract birds on campus. Ultimately the planting not only created space for the birds to nest, but also created a more attractive surrounding for the school.
This project, over all, was a huge success. The students had a great deal of hands-on experience, learned a lot about urban greening and were exposed to different types of flowers, animals and plants.