Online Projects, Collaboration Sites and Publishing Opportunities

Lesson Idea Name: Classroom Garden

Content Area: Science
Grade Level(s): 2nd grade
Content Standard Addressed: S2E3. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about how weather,
plants, animals, and humans cause changes to the environment. (Clarification statement: Changes should be
easily observable and could be seen on school grounds or at home.) a. Ask questions to obtain information
about major changes to the environment in your community

Technology Standard Addressed: 1a. Students articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies
leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning
outcomes.

Selected Online Project/Collaboration Site/Publishing Opportunity: Kids Gardening

URL(s) to support the lesson: https://kidsgardening.org/

Describe how you would incorporate an Online Project/Collaboration Site/Publishing Opportunity in your
classroom:
I would love to incorporate Kids Gardening into my future classroom because I am a huge supporter of
growing your own plants and foods, as well as promoting better nutrition for children. I think that having a
classroom garden, or a school garden, would be a great way to get students outside and involved in
something that is beneficial to our environment.

To incorporate this idea into my classroom, I would make sure to have permission from the school to build a
classroom garden, as well as the funds to support it. I would also create a permission slip to send home with
each child, or to post on my classroom blog, for parents to grant permission for their child to be involved in
this project, as well as consume any fruits or vegetables we may grow.

Once the classroom garden is up and running, I will allow students to be involved. Each morning, I will choose
2-3 students to water the garden, then 2-3 more to check for growth, or any fruits/vegetables. Allowing the
students to care for and maintain the garden will allow them to be actively involved in the project.

What technologies would be required to implement this proposed learning activity in a classroom? For this
project, my students and I will have access to kidsgardening.org where we will be able to learn more about
the project. I will also use my classroom blog as a tool to keep parents up-to-date on the garden and it’s
progress. We can utilize the internet to view pictures and videos of plants and foods growing to gauge our
garden’s progress, or predicted progress.

Describe how the following features are addressed in this learning experience (note: all of them may not be
addressed in the project, but most should be if you are reaching a high LoTi Level).
a. Collaboration with peers, near-peers, mentors outside their classroom and often beyond their
school: This project will allow my students to collaborate and work together to care for and maintain
our classroom garden. A neat idea would be to take a class field trip to a garden or greenhouse and
learn more information from expert gardeners. This would allow us to collaborate and network with
more people outside the classroom.

b. Student-centered learning and knowledge creation (creating original data and or producing original
products as a result of engaging in a project): This will be student-centered learning because the

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 Online Projects, Collaboration Sites and Publishing Opportunities
students will be in charge of the garden. I want them to be actively involved in planting, maintaining,
and caring for the garden. Along the way, I will have supplementary activities to aid in student learning
about the garden.

c. Higher-order thinking: There will be many opportunities for higher-order thinking. I will allow
students to oversee the garden (with my guidance). This will most likely be a new experience for most
of my students, so they will have multiple opportunities to do higher-order thinking.

d. Students publishing their original work to others who will use/care about their product: We will be
posting progress of our garden to our classroom blog. Another great idea would be to create a bulletin
board in the hallway for other classes to observe the progress of our garden with pictures.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Level(s):

☐ Remembering ☐ Understanding ☒ Applying ☒ Analyzing ☒ Evaluating ☒ Creating

Levels of Technology Integration (LoTi Level):

☐ Level 1: Awareness ☐ Level 2: Exploration ☐ Level 3: Infusion ☒ Level 4: Integration
☐ Level 5: Expansion ☐ Level 6: Refinement

Universal Design for Learning (UDL): This project will provide multiple opportunities for all students to learn
and grow in ways that suit them. Being able to experience the plants growing first-hand will support my visual
and hands-on learners. For my auditory learners, I will also use supplementary videos to learn more about the
progress of our garden. This is a project that is going to include all my students.

Lesson idea implementation and Internet Safety Policies: I will monitor student internet use and provide my
students with pre-selected websites and resources that are safe for their viewing. Student internet safety, as
well as safety in general, will be my number one priority.
Reflective Practice: I feel that this is a great project and a way for students to get hands on experience with
gardening and allow them to explore nature during the school-day. Since this project will be ongoing, there
will be so many opportunities for me to enhance and expand my students learning experiences. I will be sure
to comply with district and school rules and policies throughout this project.

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