Post on 20-Apr-2018
Located beside lake Mendota in Madison Wisconsin the neighborhood entitled
Spring Harbor in is home to Spring Harbor Environmental Magnet Middle School. The
location of an elementary school since 1956, the school endured a massive
metamorphosis in 1996 when it became a middle school with an emphasis on
th thenvironmental science. The school serves a small number of 6 to 8 graders (around
270) and in orde r to be enrolled the students need to live in the immediate area or have
their name drawn from a lottery. Like many schools Spring Harbor has a variety of
activities outside of classroom however, something that is particularly special to their
school is the implementation of a summer garden program. Spring Harbor’s racial
demographic leans towards a Caucasian student b ody with 56% being white. The rest is
split up relatively evenly with 13% being African American, 12% Hispanic, 11% Asian
and 6% multiracial, furthermore 36% of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch.
The first seeds of an idea for outdoor learning were planted when a former art teacher
Mrs. Paris Ford started a ruminant prairie on its grounds and since then Spring Harbor
has transformed into a thriving garden.
Spring Harbor Middle School Outdoor Classroom
"The greenhouse helps us work together and build team work" and "shows what we can accomplish if we work together." - Cami S. and Javier Z. (7th and 8th graders)
"The greenhouse is great because we're an environmental school and its different from other schools and it gives us a chance to learn about how to build things environmentally." - Devika K. (8th grader)
It's unique, its unlike anything that any other school has and it has all these amazing memories that go along with building it." Leah M. (7th grader)
Introduction
Garden Development
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After Mrs. Ford moved to the nearby Memorial High school, the prairie fell by the
wayside. However when David Ropa joined the school aspirations for the garden were
revitalized. The first rain garden was put in and the following year another followed in
pursuit. After receiving a grant they then instilled their first butterfly garden and it was
teacher Mary Goonan who started a small vegetable garden. The garden has experienced
a transformation from a small prairie to the bustling mecca of life that it has now become
and while it started from just a few isolated plots it now features hoop gardens, vegetable
plots, fruit trees, raised beds (which were made possible thanks to the GROW grant) and
outdoor classroom spaces with places for the children to sit and work. It also contains a
compost bin for garden scraps, which Ropa resourcefully utilized to teach his students
how to make compost tea. To further this composting goal they have attempted to
implement composting lunch food scraps, however it is currently difficult to apply
because there is no positive reinforcement in practice, this is something they are hoping
enforce in the future. Ropa explained that 15 years ago he went to the former principal
Gale Anderson and mentioned that he would like the school to have a greenhouse; now
this idea is in the process of being finalized.
The garden is an opportunity to foster connections within the community and
Ropa boasts on how word of mouth is so helpful when it comes to providing for the
garden. While over $115,000 has been received in monetary donations, many others have
donated their time. In addition multiple groups have heard of the garden and donated
items, for example Spring harbor’s garden received: growing lights from the madison
police department, pots from the UW agriculture, windows for the greenhouse, PVC
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In terms of garden use Ropa simply states, “some teachers use the garden more
than others.” While some teachers go outside simply to grade papers some c lasses utilize
the garden more often. In order to make sure all the teachers are getting a taste of the
garden Spring Harbor has written it into their plan that every teacher is required to use the
th garden at least once a quarter. Ropa’s 7 grade science c lass goes out to the garden 3-4
times a week, and if the weather is consistently nice he tries to use it everyday. He
believes that some class subjects fit with garden learning more than others. For example
his unit on insects can be easily adapted for the garden by seeing what they eat in the
pipes for hanging planters. The list goes on and on and easily proves the outstanding
sense of community around this garden.
Staff development
Spring Harbor Middle school’s green team consists of 12 -15 teachers, within that
group there is a more active subset entitled gardening team. This team consists of Sandra
Cole, Jennifer Vena , Katie Sinkewicz, recently retired teacher Mary Goonan, and is
unofficially headed up by David Ropa. This group is responsible for helping with
program development for the 5 week summer garden camp lead by MSCR, tweaking
outdoor learning curriculum for teachers, developing garden protocol, and inspiring
teachers who are somewhat afraid of the challenges accompanying garden use. In
addition to the above tasks the gardening team is responsible for attending training, (at
Troy gardens) and taking that education and using it for professional development for
their own green team.
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garden and what flowers they are responding to, and they can test the garden soil for the
ph.
Ropa recognizes that although he is unofficially in charge of the garden he
doesn’t dictate how staff and student use it. He preaches “If it is there, take it home” and
that it is better to send the food home with a student whose family is hungry than let is go
to waste. Teacher will communicate with one another if certain fruits or veggies are
needed; otherwise the garden operates on a first come first serve basis. During staff
development this provides time for teachers to set aside certain parts of the garden they
need or discuss pros and cons around the garden.
While some students need an extra math or language class, other students are able
to take an elective such as science extension. This elective is typically chosen by AB
students, however, many students who were otherwise struggling in other classes and
need to get their hands dirty with outdoor activity also participate in this class. In science
extension students get to work mainly on outdoor activities such as making trebuchets
and they often work on the greenhouse, using power tools to build it and hand packing
the inside walls with clay lined hay. In this extension class the students also utilize the
food they’ve grown for cooking and because Spring Harbor lacks a consumer education
class they often have to pass hurdles as small as learning to properly use knifes.
th In the winter the 7 grade teachers come together to create a food unit. The
students take ingredients from the garden and create a food concept that spans from
drinks, bakery, pizzas etc. In science they create an ing redient list and learn about its
nutrition, in art they design the packaging, in language arts they create an ad, in their
language class they create subtitles for that ad and in math class they take the
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measurements of their label, such as finding the surface area. Ropa clearly exclaims
“food is such a connector” and this unit shows how it spans across all aspects of life.
Gardening Camp
Something unique about Spring Harbor middle school is that some of the greatest
interactions with the garden occur over the summer when MSCR utilizes the site to host a
gardening camp. Through this camp kids come and get their hands dirty and spend time
out in the garden and learn how to tend for it, prepare food and are fed for the low price
of $85. Mary Goonan a recently retired teacher from Spring Harbor who now helps with
garden camp says that it is amazing to see the kids “exploring and learning” and that it
“gives them a sense of place.” One of the things that the GROW grant helped provide
was to give this organization money for greatly needed supplies such as cooking
instruments. Goonan recalled an event of a child so excited that they made stir fry at
camp with ingredients from the garden that they took extra supplies home and taught
their own family to make it and it really shows the sense of pride these children build
when they have an interaction with the garden and furthermore Sinkewicz stated that this
sense of pride allows the students to, in return, “become the teachers themselves.”
Student Involvement
Another unique aspect of Spring Harbor’s garden is the level of student
involvement in the making of this garden. Sinkewicz explained that in her art class she
had students envision a design for the greenhouse and they then took it to an architect
who helped shape the greenhouse into what it is today. The involvement of the children
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in creating the greenhouse helped them become more invested in outdoor learning. To
perfectly summarize Goonan stated that “kids needed to build it to help appreciate it” and
because of this the kids are more eager to do the work. Once the children return from
their time outside they always ask to go outside the next day and their eagerness to go
outside and stay outside is, as Sinkewicz exclaimed, “reassuring that we are doing the
right thing.” Another surprising effect of the garden is that somewhat more troubled
students thrive outside and are “leaders as opposed to being the kid in the hallway.” In
addition, when they do see those kids in the hallways in their other classes it only takes a
few words to reconnect with them and they have a new positive to draw on and
strengthen teacher student relationship.
GBOE and the Community
The community has been more than a source of donations; many community
members have given their time to help the garden prosper. Spring Harbor neighborhood
host a yearly plant sale and whatever plants that are not sold are given to the garden
further proving the connection to the community. The help from the community has been
tremendous with eagle scouts, former students, badger volunteers and master gardeners
utilizing the garden as a volunteer site. While parent involvement hasn’t shown any
noticeable increases since the gardens introduction Saturday work days on the
greenhouse have shown an increase in the amount of kids coming back to help as well as
teachers.
Future of the garden
While the use of the garden is quickly increasing it also is quickly presenting new
challenges and thoughts. For example, because the garden is open to all teachers it results
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in many faculty members not taking items from it in fear that they might be stepping on
someone toes. In the future they wish to harvest more of the products and as Sinkewicz
mentions that they want to make sure it “goes to the right places” meaning children who
would benefit from it the most. Along these lines kids can currently get scholarships to
gardening camp however since Spring Harbor is a magnet school it receives students
from all around Madison and traveling is difficult for some, in the future it would be
helpful to get some transportation sorted out for these children. The garden idea is
constantly transforming with no end in sight and concepts for it are continuously being
suggested. The end goal is to terrace the hill and give those plots of land to the
community as a garden, however at this point they are not quite ready to take this step
yet. Future ideas that the green team suggested were the introduction of a plot for a
honeybee house and even chickens! While the garden first started many years ago is
nowhere near its end, with its evolution continuing into the future. The greenhouse is the
project has the most prosperous future ahead of it, and was given a new roof just days
before my first site visit. It has a variety of different goals in its future such as being used
as a food preparation site, planting area, workspace and aqua-phonics system were native
fish can be housed. Because the garden space is tucked towards the back of the school
some parents can go all three years without ever seeing it and therefore band concerts can
be held in this area (weather providing), and their annual ice cream social can be
transformed into a garden social. An unintended consequence of the garden is the deep
connection that is established with the kids and faculty have noticed that the student are
more open to talking about personal things, therefore, Spring Harbors green team
believes that every school should be looking into using their garden as a place of
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counseling services. Ropa states that the purpose of a garden is to “get the kids outside,
eat stuff, grow things, and get their hands dirty,” with these facilities it is hard not to
fulfill these goals. Sinkewicz beautifully mentioned that having children outside is “in
their DNA” and this is why the use of outdoor education has been so successful.
Final Word Count: 2115
Appendices
thMarch 18 , Spring Harbor Middle School, Interview and garden tour with David Ropa
rdMarch 23 , Spring Harbor Middle School Interview with Mary Goonan, Katie Sinkewicz
and David Ropa
Spring Harbor Middle School. (n.d.). Retrieved April 12th, 2015, from Niche: https://k12.niche.com/spring-harbor-middle-school-madison-wi/
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Asked to take stir fry home and made it for their families sense of pride :they became the teachers then” art teacher
SATERDAY work days, kids come and bring their parents Connection with plant saledonations from plant sale (enentually do a csa) Working on harvesting more :”needs to go to the right palces” Harder for kids to get their family to the garden because the kids come from
so far away “magnet school” Can get a scholarship to camp. But transportation Ice cream social is a garden party. Hard to know that the garden is here Use the garden for a band concert. Show awareness. Good acoustics Grow helped staff usage. Wrote in their cit plan that once a quarter it is
required for the teachers to go out there. Even read, reflect, listen to the sounds
Some staff development time to help with staff correlation Grow helped them get more resources. Gardening camp “pots and plans”
materials. Helped set up a network and encorperate . monthly inputs/meetings keep you on track. Opens up a network outside of those schools as well. Personal connections last longer then the grant itself
Hoops that you have to jump through with gardening. Fire hydrant not close enough to green house. Effigy mounds hard to build. Lots of waiting for funds. District accounting practices and the way the system is designed makes it hard for students to do it. Misallocated funds. Long response time. Hard to balance a check book. Have to be persistant in getting responses.
More teachers come to help. Eagle scouts come. Former students help. Each year gardening camp gets fuller and fuller Solar oven one year. Future goals bees, chickens Tremendous word of mouth Art teacher- 6 years ago at spring harbor started. Art students came up
stuctures and archeticte brought it togeather. Being outside “”its apart of our blood. Its apart of our dna
Goonan- started little gardens. Love to see the kids exploring and learning. Every year we gather a few more things.
Helps the engagement process, helps kids buy in. they participate and corporate much better.
Kids needed to build it to help appreciate it. Gives them a purpose- art teacher. Sense of place- mary goonan
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Watching things grow and being able to see progress is helpful. Great because they don’t know the answer- Ropa
Kids always ask to go outside the next day. Eagerness to stay outside and continuously go outside is reassuring that were doing the right thing- art
They want to do the work-ropa The kids who have issues “thrive out here. Leaders as opposed to being in the
hallway”- art Deeper connection with the kids this way. Positive to go on. Teacher student
relationship is strengthened Surprising what they share with you/ deeper conversation. Kids bear there
home life- art. “every social worker should be having there meeting in the garden”
Volunteers Master gardeners, former students, badger volunteers, Edible schoolyard, so much more wildlife growing here. Birds nest on site Took staff outside during earth day. Don’t care if they’re helping build or not
but they want them to be outside. District needs to look at how they are supporting kids Many more opportunities to use the garden. Counseling services Could use a part time garden educator.
elective, work on green house, using power tools, eventually greenhouse will be
workplace, prepair food, can it, how to use knifes (no consumer ed at school), kids who
take it are typically ab students, or kids who struggle with school and need hands on,
Some teachers use more than others
Started raised beds
Ropa class- 3-4 times a week, if nice, everyday
How to adapt circculumn
Insects in fall- eating, responsing to what flowers,
Soil testing- ph
Science goes out the most
How to take kids out when its so much easier
Some materials fit better than other
If its out there eat it
Take it home
Communicate when needed otherwise it’s a first come first basis
Sets out lesson plans (heres how to use a solar oven)
Experience- cooking, planting (reading back of seed packet)
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outdoor classroom
grow grant- recycled platetes-
biochar- in process, fertilizer
composting- take scraps. Compot tea. Garbage can for lunch- working on getting kdis to
do it
straw clay intertor- kids packed it down. Clay dries from inside out. Wont mold
greenhouse- aqua ponics system, grazing fish. Food preparation. Planting area.
Workspace.
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word of mouth
money-110$ in donations
reclaimed and recycled materials- house in Monona window, growing lights donated
from madison police,
pond feature
cold frames-
pots- from madison agriculture. Used it as a border to garden.
-pvc pipes
learning stations
earth day- they clean the gardens and get ready for next year. Maintain itself- b/c perinals
Science extension- elective, work on green house, using power tools, eventually
greenhouse will be workplace, prepair food, can it, how to use knifes (no
consumer ed at school), kids who take it are typically ab students, or kids who
struggle with school and need hands on,
Future of the garden
GBOE and the Community
Appendices
Green team-
12-15 teachers enviro community
gardening team- mary goonan- retired, art treacher, Sandra cole, ms. Venna
5-6 staff that really immerse themselves
lead by ropa
roles-
5 week summer garden camp program development (not
Mscr (advistise for them and pay for it)
8:30-11:30 (many come early, stay late)
cook, garden (eat well)
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Tweaking circculum for other teachers
Protcalls for items used in the gardens
Professional develop for teachers-
Inspire teachers to do it (think a lot of teachers are afraid)
Ms. Ford- started by making a reminet prarie.
2 rain gardens, a butterfy garden
(done with
teacher turnover- ropa “I can never retire, that’s a fear, when people go in and do
something people see it as their domaine and its hard to make them see it as theres as
well” teachers could just grade papers outside
halled mulch
training
Grow grant- sharing of ideas via teachers
Troy gardens take knowledge teach other teachers
School opened in 96
Elemtary school in 58 then closed and reopened
No gardens when ropa came
Reminant prarie that wasn’t kept up when ford left.
Built rain garden, then the next year another
Money t build butterfly garden
Mary goonan started gardening program (very small)
Each year kept expanding it
Fruit trees
Someday we’d like to have a greenhouse, 15 years later…
Some teachers use more than others
Started raised beds
Ropa class- 3-4 times a week, if nice, everyday
How to adapt circculumn
Insects in fall- eating, responsing to what flowers,
Soil testing- ph
Science goes out the most
How to take kids out when its so much easier
Some materials fit better than other
If its out there eat it
Take it home
Communicate when needed otherwise it’s a first come first basis
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winter- food processing, food storage
food unit- month unit
take igrediants from the garden and create a food concept (drinks, bakery, pizzas),
recipe, indgrediants list, recipe label, packageing, commercial, substiels (in landguage
that they’re taking) food expo.. lots of interest form the kids. “food is such a connector” split them into groups, work with the same groups. Math class- surface label of product,
science- nutrion value LA- ads,e
Sets out lesson plans (heres how to use a solar oven)
Experience- cooking, planting (reading back of seed packet)
Science extension- elective, work on green house, using power tools, eventually
greenhouse will be workplace, prepair food, can it, how to use knifes (no
consumer ed at school), kids who take it are typically ab students, or kids who
struggle with school and need hands on,
Purpose- get kids outside, eat stuff, grow stff (16)
Grow- tied us into a network of knowledge people from dane county
Master gardeners sign up to use for volunteers
Lots of word of mouth
Pilled stuff out into December- kale,
Dig up stuff and put them in pots and keep inside
Ask kids what they want to grow
Mun students
Okra
Bring in their own heritage
Try to make dishes, or plant
Any parents envolved?
Mostly in summer, not in the school year, many kids don’t want to hang
Goal: community garden
Would love hill to be terraced
Not step up for quite yet
Some kids will come down to pick it
Grow grant- many community paretners
3-400 diff organizations
take any ideas, any donations, any volunteering
put word out and people donated soon after
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