S T U D E N T S P O T L I G H T : S T U D E N T S D I G L E A R N I N G T H R O U G H S M A R T P O T A T O E S P R O G R A M

Thanks to volunteers, community partners, and donors like you, over 45,000 students and 2,700 educators have access to vibrant outdoor learning environments. We currently support 81 REAL school gardens that are growing successful students across North Texas. Read on to see how your support is helping to grow strong learners.

Through the experience of growing potatoes in their learning gardens and then donating them to local food pantries,

Smart Potatoes provides students with engaging lessons in math, science, and social studies while helping them

address hunger in their communities. A collaboration between REAL School Gardens and the Botanical Research

Institute of Texas, this year’s Smart Potatoes initiative includes 30 participating partner schools. Teachers tell us that

Smart Potatoes is "a learning experience that was priceless and very rewarding," and one astute student writes that

"I learned that it feels good to help somebody

out every once in a while.” Last year 14

schools in Tarrant County participated in

Smart Potatoes and donated over 430 pounds

of potatoes to local food pantries. We are

looking forward to an even bigger harvest of

spuds and service-oriented students this June.

LEARNER’S ALMANAC

Spring 2012

Thanks to the hard work of over 100

Mercedes Benz Financial Services

team members, Sagamore Hill

Elementary School’s learning garden

came to life on April 4. Mercedes

Benz associates joined the school

community to design and bring to life

a unique outdoor learning

environment. In addition

to more common learning

features, the space they

created includes vibrant

art work and our first

stone arroyo, which will

utilize the slope of the

land to collect rainwater.

T H E B O U N T Y O F T H E S E A S O N

1,574 community volunteers helped

build and install 7 new learning

gardens this school year

41 Wells Fargo employees worked

alongside students to enhance

learning gardens at 2 elementary

schools

24 Alcon employees created new

garden features at North Hi Mount

Elementary School as part of their

global Community Partnership Day

30 partner schools are participating

in Smart Potatoes, a service-learning

initiative focused around the

experience of growing healthy food

G A R D E N S P O T L I G H T : S A G A M O R E H I L L E . S .

A handy reference for how your gift has grown this season

C O M M U N I T Y P A R T N E R S P O T L I G H T : S U P P O R T F O R S T E M I N T H E S C H O O L Y A R D

Twenty-seven teachers and administrators from six Grand Prairie schools dug

into the learning garden at Seguin Elementary School to expand their teaching

practice and help foster a school culture of teaching outdoors. Educators learned

concrete examples of cross-curricular, standards-based lesson plans. Learning

gardens provide rich opportunities for learning new skills as well as reinforcing

past lessons—and math and science are only the beginning. Teachers practiced

journaling techniques in the garden

and learned how to use seed

packets as nonfiction elements of

text. One educator told us that this

training was “an eye opener for me

and now I can open the eyes of my

students.” Her sentiments were

reiterated by a principal of one of

our partner schools who said,

“Every principal should go through

this training.”

E D U C A T O R S P O T L I G H T : G R A N D P R A I R I E T E A C H E R S E N R I C H E D U C A T I O N I N T H E G A R D E N

REAL School Gardens ● 503 Bryan Ave. Fort Worth, TX 76104 ● 817-348-8102 ● www.realschoolgardens.org ● www.facebook.com/REALSchoolGardens

The STEM in the Schoolyard event put a spotlight on how learning gardens provide hands-on, cross-curricular STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education. Thanks to Rich Templeton, CEO of Texas Instruments and this year’s community campaign chair for United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, the event brought together over 40 Dallas business executives for a morning of hands-on STEM activities. Fifth graders at Gabe P. Allen Charter School built solar ovens to bake potatoes, used catapults to launch small objects, assembled calculators powered by the chemical energy in potatoes, and connected circuits to show the transfer of energy with a flashing energy ball designed by TI engineers. REAL School Gardens is proud to partner with Texas Instruments, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, and other change-makers in Dallas to improve education and nurture a new generation of innovators.

Rich Templeton, CEO of Texas Instruments, explains the science and engineering behind how catapults work.

Grand Prairie ISD teachers learned to apply lessons taught

indoors to the learning garden for hands-on student engagement.

“[This training] was a rejuvenation for me to see

teachers and principals engaged in authentic

learning.” – Grand Prairie Educator

DFW executives came together to showcase corporate coopera-tion for education during the STEM in the Schoolyard event.

Stay in the Loop!

Up-to-date information and news

about our program and partner

schools, and resources available for

schools and community partners

facebook.com/REALSchoolGardens

Your gifts help us

grow successful

students!