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School Garden helps to Cultivate Roots of Understanding

Research has proven that trees communicate with each other through a series of underground mycorrhizal fungi networks. They coordinate their blooms and the release of their fruits. They share nutrients to emerging seedlings, and even send warnings of danger to those around them. 

These understandings about the way nature communicates can provide a lesson for how we as learners in a community like Woodland Park can work to support and encourage each other. 

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It is the inaugural year of our school garden, and already we are seeing the yields of this project. Classrooms have participated in planting a number of seasonal edibles like cucumber, lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, chives, oregano, parsley and kale. But the real beauty of the process is what is happening now. Teachers' are tapping into the curiosity of their students and participating in inquiry-based opportunities to monitor, predict, measure, and just notice the daily changes to these living specimens.


Gardens are a natural space for students to be curious. Out of this curiosity will come the realization that humans are connected to their environment in an intimate way. Too much water, or not enough - too much sun, or not enough. Learning to develop a "green thumb" is more than just the ability to grow things, it is a metaphor for our relationship to the world around us. 

As our community continues to develop these roots of understanding, our hope is that the lessons of compassion, understanding and responsibility are also translated to one another. 

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