WIELDING trowels and small forks, pupils plant crocus and daffodil bulbs in the gardens of the Aldborough E-ACT Free School, which opened in Redbridge, east London, on September 1st.
With several farmers instructing them, local elementary school pupils planted the rice last May and harvested it in early September, in a festival of their own, for a yield of nearly 135 pounds of both organically grown Koshihikari and sticky rice-cake rice.
However the school ground planting in many schools is limited and does not offer opportunities for pupil-plant contact.
The results suggest the need to rethink school ground planting and provides a valuable insight to the potential of school planting to increase pupil-plant contact with the aim to increase pupils' knowledge about plants and the environment in general, creating opportunities to support educational outdoor activities and experiences through play and teaching of the school curriculum.
I hope to encourage the pupils to plant trees to improve the environment of the school and these trees can become a resource for future use.
Kimbal Musk, an entrepreneur, recalls showing the mayor his designs for school "learning gardens" (places where pupils look at plants and learn about biology, among other things).
So, while evolution is virtually nonexistent in both the previous and today's curricula and textbooks (of both teachers and pupils), "adaptation" of plants and animals is mentioned but in a highly problematic way.
Flowers, constituted the most preferred plant part by pupils and amongst the various plant types, pupils preferred mainly woody plants and trees species.
The literature devoted to school ground planting has contributed to realising the significance of the role of school ground planting for pupil school life.
Pupils' main preferences in plants for use in school ground planting were based on functional characteristics such as the provision of shade.
