A MINI-GRANT LEADS TO
Lifelong Skills By Rachael Smith, Communications Manager
TEACHING AGRICULTURE to young students opens their minds to understanding how things grow. It gives them a look into farming and how one germinating seed turns into a vegetable served at the dinner table.
Students enjoy the outdoor benches funded by the mini-grant
School gardens are one way to deepen students’ learning. Florida Farm Bureau provides multiple $250 grants to teachers who creatively emphasize the importance of agriculture. Projects range from school gardens to a monarch butterfly life cycle to chickhatching. Jocelyn Marabell is a fourth grade science teacher at Freedom Crossing Academy in St. Johns County. She is one of 44 recipients who was awarded an FFB $250 mini-grant. She has a passion for teaching agriculture through hands16
FLORIDAGRICULTURE | JULY 2019
on learning. Starting a school garden gave her the opportunity to teach her students about nutrition and healthy eating. Before receiving the mini-grant, Marabell would fund much of her own classroom projects. The grant gave her the ability to purchase garden tools and soil for raised garden beds. She and her students grew potatoes, green beans, watermelons and sunflowers. She says that to see the joy on the students’ faces when they started digging up white potatoes is unforgettable.
“Students took potatoes home and got to cook them with their parents and then shared their recipe with the garden club,” said Marabell. As a science teacher, Marabell integrates the garden project into the regular curriculum by teaching about the different types of soil that plants grow in and how soil is formed. “I teach them about plant adaptations and tropisms and tie in math skills by measuring and collecting data on the crops we grow,” added Marabell. Second grade teacher Tracy Johnston of Thunderbolt Elementary School in Fleming Island also received a $250 minigrant. Coined the “garden lady” due to her passion for growing food, she regularly incorporates math into her school garden lesson plan. “We hosted a Eureka Math Night in our school garden to involve parents,” said Johnston. “They worked on measuring the perimeter of our garden beds, the height of a banana tree and
