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A handy reference for how gifts to REAL School Gardens have grown this season!
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S T U D E N T S P O T L I G H T : S T U D E N T S D I G L E A R N I N G T H R O U G H S M A R T P O T A T O E S P R O G R A M
Thanks to volunteers, community partners, and donors like you, over 45,000 students and 2,700 educators have access to vibrant outdoor learning environments. We currently support 81 REAL school gardens that are growing successful students across North Texas. Read on to see how your support is helping to grow strong learners.
Through the experience of growing potatoes in their learning gardens and then donating them to local food pantries,
Smart Potatoes provides students with engaging lessons in math, science, and social studies while helping them
address hunger in their communities. A collaboration between REAL School Gardens and the Botanical Research
Institute of Texas, this year’s Smart Potatoes initiative includes 30 participating partner schools. Teachers tell us that
Smart Potatoes is "a learning experience that was priceless and very rewarding," and one astute student writes that
"I learned that it feels good to help somebody
out every once in a while.” Last year 14
schools in Tarrant County participated in
Smart Potatoes and donated over 430 pounds
of potatoes to local food pantries. We are
looking forward to an even bigger harvest of
spuds and service-oriented students this June.
LEARNER’S ALMANAC
Spring 2012
Thanks to the hard work of over 100
Mercedes Benz Financial Services
team members, Sagamore Hill
Elementary School’s learning garden
came to life on April 4. Mercedes
Benz associates joined the school
community to design and bring to life
a unique outdoor learning
environment. In addition
to more common learning
features, the space they
created includes vibrant
art work and our first
stone arroyo, which will
utilize the slope of the
land to collect rainwater.
T H E B O U N T Y O F T H E S E A S O N
1,574 community volunteers helped
build and install 7 new learning
gardens this school year
41 Wells Fargo employees worked
alongside students to enhance
learning gardens at 2 elementary
schools
24 Alcon employees created new
garden features at North Hi Mount
Elementary School as part of their
global Community Partnership Day
30 partner schools are participating
in Smart Potatoes, a service-learning
initiative focused around the
experience of growing healthy food
G A R D E N S P O T L I G H T : S A G A M O R E H I L L E . S .
A handy reference for how your gift has grown this season
C O M M U N I T Y P A R T N E R S P O T L I G H T : S U P P O R T F O R S T E M I N T H E S C H O O L Y A R D
Twenty-seven teachers and administrators from six Grand Prairie schools dug
into the learning garden at Seguin Elementary School to expand their teaching
practice and help foster a school culture of teaching outdoors. Educators learned
concrete examples of cross-curricular, standards-based lesson plans. Learning
gardens provide rich opportunities for learning new skills as well as reinforcing
past lessons—and math and science are only the beginning. Teachers practiced
journaling techniques in the garden
and learned how to use seed
packets as nonfiction elements of
text. One educator told us that this
training was “an eye opener for me
and now I can open the eyes of my
students.” Her sentiments were
reiterated by a principal of one of
our partner schools who said,
“Every principal should go through
this training.”
E D U C A T O R S P O T L I G H T : G R A N D P R A I R I E T E A C H E R S E N R I C H E D U C A T I O N I N T H E G A R D E N
REAL School Gardens ● 503 Bryan Ave. Fort Worth, TX 76104 ● 817-348-8102 ● www.realschoolgardens.org ● www.facebook.com/REALSchoolGardens
The STEM in the Schoolyard event put a spotlight on how learning gardens provide hands-on, cross-curricular STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education. Thanks to Rich Templeton, CEO of Texas Instruments and this year’s community campaign chair for United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, the event brought together over 40 Dallas business executives for a morning of hands-on STEM activities. Fifth graders at Gabe P. Allen Charter School built solar ovens to bake potatoes, used catapults to launch small objects, assembled calculators powered by the chemical energy in potatoes, and connected circuits to show the transfer of energy with a flashing energy ball designed by TI engineers. REAL School Gardens is proud to partner with Texas Instruments, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, and other change-makers in Dallas to improve education and nurture a new generation of innovators.
Rich Templeton, CEO of Texas Instruments, explains the science and engineering behind how catapults work.
Grand Prairie ISD teachers learned to apply lessons taught
indoors to the learning garden for hands-on student engagement.
“[This training] was a rejuvenation for me to see
teachers and principals engaged in authentic
learning.” – Grand Prairie Educator
DFW executives came together to showcase corporate coopera-tion for education during the STEM in the Schoolyard event.
Stay in the Loop!
Up-to-date information and news
about our program and partner
schools, and resources available for
schools and community partners
facebook.com/REALSchoolGardens
Your gifts help us
grow successful
students!
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