Green Valley Elementary

(new itsc cohort)

Compost Project: The Green Valley Growing Gardener’s Club will construct a three-bin compost system, and acquire resources to increases composting knowledge.

School Garden Expansion: The student garden club will add six more boxes to more than double the growing space in the school garden.

Champions: Gina Brown, Heather Swinney, and Melissa Hooks

Indian Creek Elementary

Increase garden accessibility: Indian Creek will add pavers (perhaps concrete or stone or wood, or mats) for wheelchairs to roll on and some accessible garden beds so that students who are in a wheelchair are able to access the garden and plant in the beds.

Garden maintenance: This project will focus on yearly maintenance, including fresh mulch and new seeds for planting.

Champion: LaMonica Henson

Lakeside Elementary

(new itsc cohort)

Garden Expansion: Lakeside is adding a large in-ground vegetable and native plant garden next to their Learning Garden to increase food production, expand student involvement, and make garden care easier through an automatic watering system.

Champion: Callie Hoppes

New castle High School

(new itsc cohort)

Door #2 Beautification: New Castle students will install a raised bed garden adjacent entry area beside Door #2 to grow perennial and annual types of edible veggies along with herbs and pollinator garden plants.

Champion: Diana Bowman

Phalen Leadership Academy @ IPS 103

Learning Garden Club Curriculum: PLA Scholars will be able to learn gardening skills and how relate those skills relate to their everyday lives. Having an Indiana state science standards/garden curriculum for grades k-6 will allow scholars to take part in hands-on activities, seeing how agriculture plays a role in communities, while encouraging them to take on a more active role in nature around them.

Champion: LaTiesha Hollowell

SENSE Charter school

SENSEable Garden: The SENSE Green Team wants students to understand that the produce garden and pollination garden are equal in importance and that they are responsible for keeping these areas healthy and beautiful. Their goal is to produce more vegetables in the beds and to move the pollination garden to the front of the school where the native plants grow so well.

Champion: Jessica Tyler

St. Jude Catholic School

(new itsc cohort)

Community Garden: The goal of this garden is to expose St. Jude students to environmentally friendly gardening, composting, and pollinator gardens. Reducing lawn to native plants for reduction in mowing and fertilizers. Students will be working with local naturalists and will present to the community, school board, and parish council. All of the produce will be given away free to the community and food banks.

Champion: Carrie Modlin

Victory College Prep

Pollinator Garden: In the pollinator space they plan to plant a large variety of pollinator plants, set up observation benches inside and outside so that students can observe the animals. The inside space also doubles as a lab for close up observations for all the parts of flowering plants. Sketch pads, and species specific booklets will guide student learning as they interact with plants and animals.

Terrace Garden Station: With this station, we want to illustrate how the topography of a land area shapes how people are able to grow food on that land. Many South American countries have steep hills necessitating a terrace shape to their gardens. With many people groups from South America coming to live in North America; we want to replicate, on a small scale, how plants grow in other regions of the world.

Champion: Tim Grazien

William McKinley school 39

Urban Hens: This project will allow the Garden Club to be able to sell eggs to the local community to raise money for more seeds to plant in our Learning Garden. We hope that through this enhancement we will be able to expand our urban farming within our school and local community.

Classroom Composting & Worm Farming:  Having Red Wiggler worms at our school will provide many opportunities to teach STEM skills in the classroom. William McKinley students will be able to compost food waste in the bin daily. They will also learn how to churn the bin and empty the composted soil.

Champion: Julie Busch, Julie Herdman & Deana Perry