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Wednesday, June 11, 2003

By Joyce Brandebura

Pupils in Bon Meade Elementary School can walk on fertile soil, touch butterflies and plants, even feel raindrops or sunshine in their newest classroom -- an outdoor garden or Schoolyard Habitat Establishment.

Teacher Shannon Martindale said the nontraditional classroom in Moon enables pupils to learn ecology firsthand. The garden is used by pupils in kindergarten through fifth grade.

Fifth-grade teacher Sally Fuller received the inspiration for the project when she attended a workshop presented last year by ASSET Inc.

ASSET (Allegheny Schools Education and Technology) Inc. was created by the Bayer Corp. and comprises business, education and community leaders working to change the way science is taught in Allegheny County.

Inspired by the workshop, Fuller took her own personal love of gardening and incorporated it into a learning experience for the pupils.

The immediate goals of the garden classroom are to provide inspiration for children to have contact with nature, provide shelter and food for local wildlife and enhance and expand existing curriculum.

In addition, the pupils will enrich community involvement through outdoor education and learn character enhancement skills, Martindale said.

The fifth-graders have taken on most of the responsibility of mapping out the garden, planting, digging, watering, weeding, labeling and keeping the garden alive. The garden is open to all pupils so they can enjoy, explore and become more involved in its future development.

Insight into history, reading and science can be gained through their outdoor laboratory. Pupils have developed a history garden tying in plants from the Colonial cultures, such as the Serviceberry Tree, which was abundant during the Revolutionary War.

They also planted a science garden with lilacs and other flowers, which attract butterflies, hummingbirds and other wildlife. A literature and fable garden is filled with plants and flowers predominant in the Beatrix Potter series of books.

Most of the topsoil and mulch for the garden was donated by six local nurseries. The fifth-grade class also raised more than $400 by collecting 60,000 aluminum cans during Earth Week in March.

Martindale said children from all grades participated in a contest to name the gardens. The winners of the naming contest will create their own garden plaques to accent the gardens' beauty and child-oriented nature.

Fuller often hears the pupils talking and making plans for the garden.

"The fifth-graders, especially, have taken ownership in the garden," she said. "They work on it independently, without motivation, and are looking forward to coming back and visiting next year when they are in the middle school."

She said some have even written in their memory books that the garden is the most memorable project of their entire elementary education.

Fuller and Martindale will continue the program so that all the pupils, especially the younger ones, will be able to continue to work and learn in the garden throughout their years at Bon Meade.