16-19 June 2009 Weekly Update | Gardening - Activities

Education By Gardening - Recent Activities

Friday, June 19, 2009 12:07 PM

16-19 June 2009 Weekly Update

The Education by Gardening program at FHC is blessed this summer with a busy schedule serving children from Fervent Prayer Outreach Ministries Church, Zion Hill Baptist Church, Edna Martin Center, and IPS #51.

This summer's activities have been made possible by grants from the Summer Youth Program Fund (SYPF) Partners: Annie E. Casey Foundation and from Lilly Endowment. Additional aid has come by way of the Lilly Day of Service with donations of man power along with plants, compost, mulch, and hand garden tools, etc., Community Hospital's Wellness Program's donation of a RN's time, Jr. Master Gardener guidance and volunteers from Purdue Extension/Keep Indianapolis Beautiful (KIB), science kits from Lilly's Science Education Outreach, and an intern from the Indianapolis Peace Institute. Of course nothing would be possible without the donation of time and energy from many volunteers who lovingly work with the Indianapolis inner city youth and in our garden.

Summer Gardening By Education Week 2 June 16-19
Themes:
Soils and Water
Planting
Germs and the Food Pyramid

This week FHC, volunteers, and campers were all challenged by the rain. Each day's campers were limited or prevented entirely from getting out into the garden by rain and thunder storms with the exception of Thursday afternoon's campers at IPS #51 and Friday's campers who faced unusually high temperatures (+90 degrees) for June. However, neither of these kept fun and learning at bay and campers experienced a variety of activities. Due to the weather, this often meant sharing the same space with sometimes, two, three, or four activities occurring at the same time. Additionally, since last week's Tuesday campers were unable to attended, they tested soil and learned about proper hand washing along with some of this week's activities.

Campers learned about the food pyramid and were able to relate food growing in the garden to the fruits and vegetables in the pyramid. They discussed their favorite foods and found them on the pyramid while coloring a food pyramid of their own. They also had a story read about germs and remembered how they learned to wash their hands with soap while singing the ABC's last week. This week campers swabbed their unwashed hands with cotton swab and "planted" unseen germs onto agar plates. Then they washed their hands (as they learned last week) and their clean hands were swabbed and any germs were transferred to agar plates. Next week, when they come back they can see those "pesky unseen germs" that grew on the agar and they can see if they really washed hands clean by seeing if any germs grew on the "clean hands" agar plates.

Leaning about soil and water and nutrients continued this week in more detail. Campers identified plants with yellow leaves, which indicated they soil was low in nitrogen. They compared this information with the results of last week's soil testing and were pleased to find that data also showed the soil to be nitrogen deficient. Volunteers added fish emulsion to the soil to increase the nitrogen content; campers will observe over the next weeks to see if the number of yellow leaves decreases. Campers examined different types of soil, clay, compost, and sand by squishing these through their fingers while talking about how each would help or hurt any plants trying to grow in those alone. This was followed by placing soil samples in water in closed jars. Campers then mixed the contents with vigorous shaking and set them aside to look at next week after the contents have settled. While some campers were able to transplant seedlings, nearly all were able to plant flower seeds in their very own pots. They will be able to watch them grow over the coming weeks and get to take their pots home to share with those at home.

Friday, the day when most of the older youth attend, building two garden benches provided a challenge. With the help of volunteers, campers tightened bolts, hammered nails, and attached pre-cut wood pieces to form two more benches. They really enjoyed getting to use tools and the pride on their faces was evident when they sat on them to enjoy their snack before heading home.

This weeks healthy snack comprise of fruit smoothies on Tuesday and fruit smoothie "popsicles" the rest of the week. Fruit, apples, bananas, grapes, pineapple and yogurt were blended into a cool smoothie. With the rain and heat forecast for most of the week, on Tuesday afternoon, the plan was changed to make fruit smoothie "popsicles" and that decision proved to be a welcome change with the campers.

Below are pictures from each day's activities. If you wish to see more pictures, just click on the appropriate link and enjoy.

Transplanting