The Educational Mission of The Green House Venture
Submitted by: Donald Stump Ph.D. GHV VP/Curriculum Director Saint Louis University Professor
Objective The prime objective of the Green House Venture is to enhance STEM education for students in urban elementary schools, with a special emphasis on those who are underserved. Though focused on St. Louis, the Venture has been designed from the beginning as a replicable model for educational projects elsewhere on a regional, national, and even international scale. Our aim is not to replace education carried out by classroom science teachers but rather to supplement it. All of our activities are hands-on, designed to attract young students to do science and, more importantly, to experience what it is to be scientists. Our focus is on asking students interesting questions and developing challenging, gradeappropriate experiments to answer them. In the process, we introduce the scientific method, engaging students in hypothesizing, observing, measuring, drawing conclusions, communicating their results, and reflecting on what has been accomplished. From one-hour suggestive experiments to some lasting as long as eight weeks, participants learn how to do online research and try their hand at artistic rendering, graphing, writing, and other skills— not only as ends in themselves but also as means to excite the imagination, learn about the world, and pass on discoveries to others. From our founding in 2015 to the present, our educational strategy has centered on five main programs, listed below. We have piloted the first two successfully on a neighborhood scale (though COVID has recently forced their suspension). The last three are plans for our future development when our Education Center has been constructed.
Summer Adventure Camp This three-week program is run in collaboration with Tower Grove Park (for educational experiences in nature) and with Saint Louis University (for lessons in growing and cooking healthy food). Once the Education Center is open, we plan to develop a series of such camps, each lasting a week and covering different topics, from identifying trees and wildlife to building computerized growing chambers and bee hotels to preparing dishes in local ethnic cuisines. For fun—and for health-benefits—students will also participate in outdoor sports.
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Ambassadors Program Our successful after-school segment, called the Ambassadors Program, brings together small teams of students in grades 4-6 from four partner schools in the Urban Education Alliance. The teams meet once a week to carry out experiments, take field trips, and prepare end-of-term presentations for their families, teachers, and friends. The program engages volunteer professionals, paid undergraduate mentors, and visiting scientists, working together to introduce students to a wide range of topics in Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, and other STEM disciplines. Plans for the Education Center include expanding the number of once-weekly programs and the ages of participating students.
Classroom Initiatives When COVID suspended our work with the Alliance Schools, we were in the process of establishing a Classroom Outreach Program under the leadership of a retired elementary-school principal. The aim was to offer teachers opportunities to conduct eight-week growing experiments in computer-controlled growing chambers invented and supplied by the Venture. Our support was also to include curricular materials and growing supplies; visits from volunteer staff to help design, set up, and monitor each experiment; and assistance with final data analysis and assessment. For overworked teachers on tight budgets, such support is necessary for students to have hands-on experiences as experimentalists.
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Encounters with our Education Center This innovative will offer a wide range of experiences, beginning with once-a-week class sessions in science and urban agriculture for our partner-schools in the Urban Education Alliance. The Center will also be available to classes from other schools throughout the St. Louis region, visiting us as they go on field trips to the Botanical Garden, the Zoo, Tower Grove Park, and other nearby destinations. The facility is designed as a broadcast studio to support recording and streaming over the Internet to schools throughout region and beyond. Focusing on five ways to grow food in a city, video presentations (both live and archived) will allow us to engage classes from the Embankment Greenway, the aquaponic greenhouse, our soilless “green” roof-top, and our raised-bed and vertical growing areas. Lessons will include native Missouri prairie and savannah ecosystems, habitats for butterflies and native ground bees, aquaponic raft-pools and hydroton beds, hydroponic growing walls and towers, and the fundamentals of composting and vermiculture. Even the center’s electrical wiring and plumbing will be partly open to view behind plexiglass. Students will also be able to observe work in the broadcast control room and the workshop for crafting experimental equipment.
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Content Streamed on the Internet Internet content will be drawn from lessons and experiments successfully piloted in Ambassadors After-School Program. Professionally designed as part of a threeyear integrated curriculum (which is currently being prepared for publication), these lessons will be made available on the World Wide Web for any teacher who wishes to draw on them. As we branch out into further areas of science and new educational projects, we plan to invite school and university professionals to contribute ideas and advice. We also hope to fund graphic designers to make our videos a creative force in science education.
Through these foundation programs and others yet to come, our work will continue to provide students with opportunities through their middle-school years and beyond. As professional staffing and resources permit, we hope to enlarge our offerings (now limited to grades 4-6) to include grades 7-8. Older students who remain engaged will be invited to volunteer as teaching assistants and mentors to younger students. As graduates of our programs go on to high school, we will remain available for advice, support, and letters of recommendation to help them gain acceptance and financial aid to attend first-rate science high schools, trade schools, and institutions of higher learning. As alumni of Venture programs go on, we hope to engage them in mentoring current students. In these ways, we plan to contribute to workforce development with more students pursuing careers that are so vital to the local institutions and corporations that make St. Louis the center for research in bio-science and agricultural in the nation. Such development requires a holist approach, starting with children who would otherwise be left behind. It is our primary goal and concern to help them chart paths out of poverty into higher education and callings that challenge their minds and provide for their families.
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