Why I want to integrate gardening in my CTE classes

This is just a rough draft but trying to organize my thoughts.  Any suggestions?

The middle school curriculum for Career and Technology is extremely broad.  This can be daunting, especially if you are starting out as a new teacher.  This can also be very freeing in the respect that each teacher has their own unique circumstances in which to function.  In my case, I teach at four different elementary schools in Watauga County, visiting two schools per day.  

Students and teachers alike want their classes to be interesting and relevant.  This year I’m going to try something new.  I haven’t named it yet but for this article, let’s call my activity “Growing Things”.   Generally, students will be involved in growing plants, some started indoors, some transplanted, some from cuttings, some from seed, grown on the window sill, others in a greenhouse, or maybe even sprouts in a mason jar in the cabinet (aka hydroponics). 

Why use gardening, horticulture, and even landscaping as a medium for teaching career and technology?  Here are some ideas upon which to speculate.  How many careers are related to food?  Fast food, restaurants, food distribution, transportation of products, chemicals, and biology.   I’d be willing to bet that any food production, distribution, or service industry would have its share of accountants, managers, information technology specialists, and marketing arm.   Maintenance of facility and equipment requires technicians, mechanics, and even engineers in larger companies.  In advertising, one must be adept in photography, videography, social skills, business etiquette, and money management. 

Maybe you are the type of person that wants to emphasize entrepreneurship.  You don’t have to come up with some simulated pie in the sky pretend simulation to teach small business.  Teach it for real.  Market research in the local community will reveal what fresh grown fruits, veggies, flowers and other plants they are anxious to buy.  Further research on the student’s part will reveal what can be grown and at what cost. 

So far, we have included small business, internet research, engineering, financial skills, multimedia, science, marketing and biology. 

That I believe is the tip of the iceberg.  At one of my schools, Mabel Elementary School, we have received three grants in just the last year to promote healthy eating and gardening.  Students have measured the school, and drawn up the school grounds in Google SketchUp to best plan where our raised garden beds will go.  A community day brought out different speakers, who presented their information to the kids with 12 learning stations with information about health and nutrition, sustainable agriculture, landscape architecture, and the SunCatcher greenhouse we plan to build. 

What do we need to grow things?  Besides sun and water, brute force might be needed to dig holes, turn soil, and weed. So now we have exercise.  In fact, a little exercise outdoors might do some of our button pushing Play Station and computer game players some good.  For those bigger tasks at home though, we utilize small engines trim or cut grass.  This presents an authentic need to teach power mechanics in the form of small engine maintenance to support the growing things lesson.   

Once grown, what does one do with the food we grow?  Some is suitable for selling, but much can be prepared for eating, either fresh or cooked.  This too can be another CTE activity in the classroom.  Not only should cooking be considered but also food preservation, such as canning and drying.  Drying can be easily and affordably done with solar food dehydrators, which students can design using drafting and CADD software and construction skills to build.  And the seeds from many plants can be saved, which connects to sustainable living.  As for the leftovers, we can compost that using aerobic or anaerobic composting, or maybe we should venture into vermiculture (worm composting). 

During WWII, having a victory garden wasn’t just a hobby. It was a necessity.  With the current state of the economy and globalization, who knows how our economy will do in the next generation or two?  Some will argue that with the cost of energy, and the concern for health and the environment, growing our own food, flowers and foliage will make strong economic sense for anyone that owns a few square yards of dirt out their door. 

It is the beginning, at least in my mind of something big.  I foresee students across the grades and curriculum growing food and flowers from seed, cooking with some, selling others and donating some to worthy charities.  I see them developing a better understanding of the soil, the earth, climate, solar power (greenhouse, cold frames, and dehydrators) and the need for conservation and preservation of natural resources.  Research skills will be honed as my students search, compile and report on items related to composting, tools, and soil analysis.  Students will experience authentically the fruits of their labors.  When things don’t grow as expect, real problem solving will have to be used to identify the cause and resolve any issues causing the undesired effects. 

We are charged with teaching children how to live in the 21^st century with 21^st century skills.  Seems to me, growing things could be a pretty important skill.