*Child will label maps.

*Child will keep a garden log.

*Child will create art.

*Students will plan a 4 foot by 4 foot garden using the square foot garden charts at the end of "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew. Students will try to optimize their food growing potential, estimate harvest and make a calendar of what they need to do when to grow the garden.

*Students will use a microscope to observe beneficial microbes in a natural environment.

*Students will grow plants to studey genetic crosses (this would be over a period of at least a year so plan on the time factor).

*Students will create F1 (?and F2) punit charts for their hybrids.

*Student will describe the reproductive cycle of a plant.

*Student will make a chart of photosynthesis and plant respiration and describe why these are important to life on our planet.

beneficial microbes

food web

detritivores

organic

decomposition

microbe

horticulture

reproduction

compost

pistil

stamen

ovary

sepal

ovule

petal

pollen

pollination

Organic Gardening Magazine (several articles on beneficial insects)

*Have the students make a list of all the supplies they will need to start their gardens. Older students hould come up with a budget and try to plan within that budget. Have students call or write for seed catalogs.

*Art:

Design a sign for selling your produce.

Design something to scare away birds and make it.

*Math:

Make a calendar. Note planting dates, frost dates, fertilizing (ogranic of course <smile> schedules, ect. Explain the usefulness of a calendar in gardening.

Planning the garden provides several extension activities for math such as multiplication, measurement, area, subtraction of large numbers, optimizing space (calculus), graphing.

*Genetics: Over a period of a year you can try several crosses such as Zucchini and yellow squash, different types of cucumbers, zinnia colors, etc. To cross two plants, put a nylon stocking over a non self pollinating flower (students need to research what they are!!!) that is barely developed. Leave the stocking on and lift only when pollinating with a paintbrush. The stocking will stretch but its best to take it off before the fruit develops too much.

*Social Studies: Have the student label areas of famine in the world. Pray for the victims of these famines. Have them research (or talk about it with them) how better practices might relieve the problem. Research the dust bowl of the US and the salt flats of Australia.

Also have the students pick ten vegetables and try to label on a map where they originated from.

* You can separate organisms from compost by placing the compost in a large funnel (fill to the top). Set the end of the funnel in a darkened container ( a coffee can with a lid covered in black paper and a hole the size the end of the funnel works). Line the bottom of the container with a brand new coffee filter. Hang a light over the funnel and let stand for 2 days. Students can then observe the filter paper and tally the organisms they find. (Again, making a graphs is a good math activity to end this project).

*Have the students construct a bee house. We made one from a 4 inch diameter by 6 inch long white oak log. Drill holes randomly in the ends of the log. The holes should be about 1/3 of an inch diameter by 6 inches long.