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Science in the Gardens at Lakeshore

The garden program at our school began with a few parents who looked at Lakeshore and envisioned a school with beauty and flowers. This vision grew to become not only a beautification of the school, but a science-based garden program which is taught all school year to all the children at Lakeshore. They learn about soil science, parts of the plant, flower and seed, the seasons, seeds and how they travel, growing vegetables, math, plant propagation, plant identification, botany, arthropods, earth science -- including the study of earthquakes, plate tectonics, the rock cycle and identifying sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks – and how to observe nature. They learn the role of actinomycetes in the making of compost, feeling for themselves the heat these microscopic creatures create in the compost pile. They learn how use a shovel, how to handle tools safely and how to properly plant seeds. They learn to identify some California native plants, as well as what makes a (usually nonnative) weed and why.

All the lessons are based on the California state science standards; all the lessons are sensory; all the lessons are outside in the garden. Worksheets are used in every lesson to emphasize and clarify what they are learning; magnifiers are assigned to each child to increase their ability to observe the tiniest detail of a leaf or a bug. The students learnscience using their hands, their noses, their eyes and their ears, as well as their minds. They learn about arthropods by handling pillbugs; soil science by feeling sand, compost, and clay and using words to describe them; parts of the seed by dissecting the lima bean; plant identification by collecting plant samples and making plant ID cards. Everything is science and everything in the garden is a tremendous motivation for learning.

Martha Luna and Jean Moshofsky Butler are the garden/science educators at Lakeshore. Martha Luna teaches kindergarten and firstgrade,and Jean Moshofsky Butler teaches second through fifth grades.

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