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Global Garden Class Weekly Briefing
September 8 - September 14, 2003
Welcome Back to School!
Strawberries & Zucinni from the Garden
It is a new School year. Students have spent the summer tending the Camp garden with great results.
There is an all new GIS map to show this years crops. As we approach early Fall we will begin adding photos and video to the GIS map.
A new Student and Teacher data entry tool has been created for the GIS projects which makes it really easy to upload and then edit information on your own classroom GIS project.
Notice in the Garden GIS that the map itself, the boudry image, was drawn by one of our students. Another way to make a map, yet still accurate. And it reminds us that maps have always been drawn by hand. In an age of computer generated mapping that is easy to forget.
We will be exploring Gardening from Indoors and Outdoors this year.
Hydroponics, Greenhouse ag. and gardening from the patio to the school yard will be explored.
One of our goals with the Garden Project is to teach database and general project organization skills.
To accomplish this we learn to keep really good records on our garden, to calculate area. To record the amount of water we use and the cost of seeds.
By learning to keep the project data on an Excel Sheet or simple database your school gardening project becomes a science, math and database learning environment.
And! This year, working with the new Camp GIS mapping tools you will be able to establish a map of your own garden, edit it from school and watch the database, GIS map and your garden grow all year.
Now lets take a look at the Garden Classroom design for this year:
First, know your Garden Web tools. Keep active weekly by using the Global-Garden web and always look out for new resources.
Your Calendar is a guide to what is going on each week and what is comming up.
The Calendar is always available from your Garden home page. Right at the top of the page.
Along with the online Calendar you will receive a Briefing via email very week.
The Briefings are also available via the Garden web. A link to briefings will always be at the top of yor Garden homepage.
This is the Second year of Camp Internet's Garden Studies Program.
The Global-Garden Expedition is rich in content and resources. One of Camp Internet's most developed multi-tract curriculum support programs, Global-Garden is truly useful in every classroom.
Over the course of this school year we will have Master Gardners, environmental scientists, GIS specialists and Space agriculture specialists as well as many others join with us for special chat sessions and web study units.
Science
What do plants need to grow? That is the first question we will ask as we give everyone an Introduction to the science of Sustainable Agriculture. Goto: http://www.rain.org/global-garden/science/science-project-plants.html for the first unit. Once we know what plants need to grow we will look at what it takes to create the special habitat we call a "garden".
Math
Math is a core part of sustainable agriculture studies. It is part of the larger science framework which includes chemistry, meterology and more. This year we will use GIS and the creating of a GIS map of our class gardens.
Review http://www.rain.org/campinternet/keys/gps-excel-template.htm to see how the basic information gathering template works. This is where the practical math begins, acturately recording latitude, longitude and descriptions. We will study this month how to use Excel to create a data list for your garden GPS project.
Later in the month we will review some of the basic math principles behind the GIS maps and also some of the basic math necessary to calculate seed use, crop yield, water use and more.
Reading
We begin the reading unit within the Garden Expedition by reviewing some basic gardening vocabulary. Review the vocabulary list at http://www.rain.org/global-garden/vocabulary.html.
History
We will study the history of farming and garding this year. New inventions like the plow Thomas Jefferson designed, will be part of our study along with the creation of a Sustainable Agriculture Timeline, part of our ongoing History Timline project. Goto this link to review the History Class
VIDEO- Camp Internet Student VIDEO is some of the best on the Net - Classroom teams are invited to submit 3 to 5 minute videos (digital or regular). Subject of the video should explore issues of social responsibility, environmental issues, school activities and sports, community events or current work with Camp Internet.
Video should be sent as an attachment or mailed to:
RAIN Network
Youth Technology Corps Video
1129 State Street A-7
Santa Barbara, CA. 93101
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