You have been studying plants in science.  Mr. Johnke has asked our class to use what we have learned about plants and their needs to plan a school garden.  You and your partner will follow the directions of this WebQuest task to design and start the school garden.
 
 

 

You and your partner are going to design and plan a school garden.  In doing this, you will:

• visit websites to determine the style of garden you want and justify why Mr. Johnke might want this style of garden
• design the shape of your garden
• calculate the area and perimeter of your garden
• use on-line nursery catalogs to choose the plants that will be in your garden
• calculate how many plants you will need and establish the cost of starting a school garden
• use on-line resources to help you begin your garden
• create a multi-media presentation to present your garden plan to the class, you may use Kid Pix or Microsoft Power Point

Student Sites
 

Teacher Sites
 

Next

• First you will be paired with another classmate.

• Together you will visit the Garden Planning - What you need to know web pages.

• After you have done that, decide what style you think would be best for the school in Irene.

• Then use the word processing program Letter Generator to write Mr. Johnke a letter to persuade him that the style you and your partner chose would be the best choice for our school.  You should  include a down-loaded picture of a garden from the site you visited along with at least three reasons with support that explain how this style of garden will benefit our school.  You may want to consider the following things:

1. Will your garden be easy or difficult to care for?
2. Will you need to plan a committee for caring for this garden style in the   summer?
3. Does your garden style fit with the style of the building? (Is it too formal or too casual?)

• Using the Paint/mapmaker drawing tools, create a picture of the shape of your garden.  Make sure you include a scale (such as 1 inch on paper would be equal to 1 foot of actual garden space).  Label the length of each side.  Calculate the area and perimeter of the garden and put this information next to your garden design.  Save this to your disk!

• Visit the Nursery Catalog website and select no less than 4 types of plants for your garden.  Use the information given about each plant to determine how many of each plant you will need and the cost for all of your plants. (It may be easier to calculate a cost for each type of plant and then a total)  Use the chart to help you calculate your costs.  Make sure you add in fertilizer costs.

• Use the presentation software of your choice to create a slide show.  The slide show should include  your paint/mapmaker garden design, downloaded pictures of the plants you selected for your garden, information about the cost of the garden, and tips our class will need in order to care for the garden throughout the spring.

You will be evaluated on each of these components: (click on each to link to the rubric)

• Your persuasive letter to Mr. Johnke
• Your calculation chart
• Your final presentation

Even though you will be doing the majority of the work in pairs, these three things will be done individually and graded on an individual basis.
 
 

 

Congratulations.  Now you are ready to design, plan, and start a school garden.
 
 

Visual Gardens

Vegetable - tips gardening pictures

Butterfly Gardens
 
 

Vegetable seeds, Flower seeds, Plants and Bulbs

http://www.gurneys.com

http://www.gourmetseed.com

http://www.superseeds.com

http://www.burpee.com

http://www.michiganbulb.com

Flower Picture Sites

http://www.theheatherfarm.com

Use these additional sites to help you plan your garden:
Making garden stakes to identify the rows of plants in your garden will help you remember what each plant is.
Use these directions to make a Beanstalk House.
Use this page to help you plan a home garden.
Check out these gardening links.
Learn more about plants and our environment.
Learn more about vegetable gardening.
 
 
 

These can be used throughout a unit on plants:
Tips for starting a school garden
Green Teacher magazine
Ways to start seeds indoors
More links to kids gardening pages
Kids gardening resources
 
 

Your persuasive letter will be graded 2 times.  The first grade will based on the following rubric:

4-  Sentences and paragraphs are complete, well-constructed and of varied structure.

3-  All sentences are complete and well-constructed (no fragments, no run-ons). Paragraphing is generally done well.

2-  Most sentences are complete and well-constructed. Paragraphing needs some work.

1-  Many sentence fragments or run-on sentences OR paragraphing needs lots of work.

The second grade will come from the following Writing to Persuade rubric:

4-  Ideas were expressed in a clear and organized fashion. It was easy to figure out what the letter was about.

3-  Ideas were expressed in a pretty clear manner, but the organziation could have been better.

2-  Ideas were somewhat organized, but were not very clear. It took more than one reading to figure out what the letter was about.

1-  The letter seemed to be a collection of unrelated sentences. It was very difficult to figure out what the letter was about.

4 - You have completed the chart with the names of at least 4 plants, entered the cost of each, the number you will need and the total cost, all calculated correctly.  You have included the price of fertilizer.

3 - You have completed the chart with 3 plants and showing correct calculations, or 4 plants with 1 incorrect calculation. You have included the price of fertilizer.

2 - You have completed the chart with 2 or less plants or have multiple calculation mistakes.  You have not included the    price of fertilizer.

1 - Your chart is incomplete.

Your final presentation will be graded on the following rubric:

4 - You have completed the project using powerpoint/kidpix using minimum 4 slides showing garden design, pictures of plants, overall costs, and tips on care.

3-  You have completed the project using powerpoint/kidpix using 3 or more slides, and covering only three of the following; Design, Plant Pictures, Costs, Tips.

2-  You have completed the project using powerpoint/kidpix using 2 or more slides, and covering only two of the following; Design, Plant Pictures, Costs, Tips.

1-  Your final project is incomplete.