Garden+Centre+-+Planting+Phase+&+Student+Involvement

= __Meeting 7 - Planting Phase & Student Involvement__ =

Initially, it looked as if students were not going to be allowed on the roof at any point of the construction / planting stage. This would have severely limited them to maintaining the garden only. Fortunately, the funder, Margo, stepped in and purchased additional insurance, allowing for more student involvement. Thanks, Margo!

What follows are the results of the collaboration between the different parties involved, working on planning the student involvement (K-12 and college) in both the planting stage and the ongoing maintenance. It should be noted that additional meetings were held with the College Horticulture Instructor (Laura), the Living Roof Education Specialist (Kaylea) and the local Garden Centre Owner / Manager (Greg W.). The purpose of these meetings and emails was to examine the original plant lists and revise them based on the knowledge of the local climate and to be better suited for student care.

__Goals of the Meeting__ Email to all partners - Tuesday, Dec. 6 Hello Living Roof Partners! Was I ever happy to see a change in the plans, to allow much more student involvement in the planting process. To me, this is even more important than having them involved in the construction. I have reviewed the plans, drawings and plant lists and I like the adjustments that have been made to the plan of the roof. I really like the idea of Deb's high school classes working on the living wall part of the plan. I do have some suggestions to make regarding substitutions in the plant list. I think there are some choices that would be better suited to our climate and that are easier for students to care for. Laura, I have been in touch with Kaylea, about revising this list. I would like you to be involved in this process as well, if possible. I have set up another Google Doc, as this seems to have been working well for this group. The purpose of this Google doc is to plan out student involvement in the planting phase, as well as to start to plan out how they will be involved in the maintenance of the garden. There has been lots of talk in our other meetings regarding student involvement in the planting, but this will give us a chance to pull it all together. In order to be able to get plants / seeds / materials ordered in time, I ask that everyone adds their input by 10:00 pm (Calgary time) on Wednesday, Dec. 7. The Google Doc can be accessed at @https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pl098Ar1zgPWd5hAxuoVmBecaKcD968ARp29yh6slW0/edit.  The results of the collaboration can be seen below or by visiting the live Google Doc at the link above.   =__Meeting 7 - Wind Group__ = Facilitated by Greg Wedman, Garden Centre Manager
 * 1) plan student involvement, specifically in the planting phase.
 * 2) develop ideas for a plan for maintenance of the living roof garden

Goals:

 * 1) plan student involvement, specifically in the planting phase.
 * 2) develop ideas for a plan for maintenance of the living roof garden

Now that we have confirmed that students will be able to be involved in the planting phase of the Living Roof, we can have a focused meeting to brainstorm how students can be involved in the planting process. For the most part, the selections have been made regarding the plant choices for on the Living Roof, however, Kaylea (Living Roof Specialist), Laura (College Horticulture Instructor) and I (Garden Centre Manager) will be meeting separately to finalize this list.

Please take some time to compile your suggestions that came up in previous meetings as well as to develop any new ideas that you may have. I would also like to get this group thinking about how we will be collaborating to maintain the garden so that the community will be able to enjoy it for years to come.


 * Group || Suggestions for Involvement in Planting || <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Suggestions for Involvement in Maintaining ||
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Elementary Students || * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|Elementary School Summary Presentation]
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff9900; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Grade 2 need to be able to describe the importance of water to living and non-living things. They will observe the effects of water and other important elements to plant growth through field trips to the greenhouses and by taking part in some of the planting in the early stages (planting seeds in cups and watching them grow.)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff9900; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Grade 3 students collect, study, test rocks for colour, texture and minerals -then create informative web pages with all of their information. Their rock collections could be added to a ‘rock garden’ in the living roof. QR codes will be displayed that will give information via mobile devices.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff9900; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">FOR ALL ELEMENTARY STUDENTS: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff9900; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">incorporate a buddy system with high school students to help with safety on the roof. || * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff9900; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Grade K/1 students identify the different parts of the plants through direct observation - fieldtrips to the greenhouses and completing worksheets. They will also observe the seasonal patterns and the effects that has on plant life over the course of a year through several visits to the roof and by observing coverage on the webcam. Thank you all for your great ideas. I have made sure that I will have the necessary seeds, as well as starting out many of the required plants in our greenhouse, with the help of Jackie's class and others in her school. Although it will be changing as we work through it, we also have a great start to planning for keeping students involved in maintaining the garden so that it remains as nice or better as when it is first planted.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff9900; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Grade 3 students could help with weeding.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff9900; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Grade 4 students: Students use Diigo & Blogger to collaborate with peers and experts. Information is made accessible from Living roof site through QR tags. An on-site web-cam will allow students to observe growth and progress from their computers. Several visits to the site will allow students to observe plant growth and changes. They could also help with weeding and watering.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff9900; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Grade 5: Students research the number of living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components interacting on the living roof. They participate in a Twitterchat where they demonstrate digital citizenship and increase knowledge through their personal networks. They coulld aso assist in the planting and maintenance of the roof top garden.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff9900; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Grade 6, junior high and high school students work collaboratively using F2F, skype or Video Conferencing software to create landscape designs using Evergreen criteria and the support of Evergreen specialist, college students and Greg. via blogs and Twitter. ||
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Junior High Students || * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As discussed in previous meetings, I am hoping to have the Jr. High students engage in an inquiry based project that focuses on having them work like and with experts. Because students will be contributing ideas to the design and plant selection stages of this project the actual construction and planting phases will be an excellent opportunity for them to see the actualization of their planning. I would like students to participate in all facets of this work. I believe that if they learn about safety expectations and protocols in advance, are personally invested in the work, are supported by high school students and adults, they will be fully capable of being responsible, safe and ultimately useful participants in this process.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Another potential role for my students throughout this work is in documenting the process. I have been working with the language arts and media arts teachers at our school to develop a plan for how our students could work as documentary film makers to capture this entire process and tell the story of our living roof project to the larger community and ultimately the world. My colleagues and I envision short videos along the way that could be shared out via the social media tools already suggested in our past collaborations (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Youtube, etc.) and then a feature length documentary that captures the big picture of this project including interviews with all of you, students, community members, etc. || * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The ongoing maintenance work could fit well with a volunteer program we have at our school where all tudents partake and document volunteer time in civic, social and/or environmental stewardship initiatives. I am sure we can use the same Outlook calendar Deborah, Jackie asnd I have created for the construction visitation schedule to coordinate which students, from each of the schools will be working on maintaining the roof at any given time. To ensure the sustainability of the capacity for this work, I will have some students in our video production option work directly with Greg W to create instructional videos regarding the jobs that need to be done and we can upload them to each of our schools’ websites so that in the future students/teachers who have not been a part of this project can watch them before their scheduled maintenance time. ||
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">High School Students || * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Provide suggestions for planting and propogation of living wall (Rocketslide, email)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Maintenance (watering, pruning, fertilizing) of living roof (scheduling on Microsoft Office)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Provide assistance with garden roof planting and maintenance as required. || * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Research, presentations, and suggestions for plant species. (Blog, Wikis, Wix, Rocketslide, Email)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">High School has developed a green course since we have the convenience of having a ‘living lab’ on site.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Video production of wall life cycle and roof. (Youtube)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Community Outreach - creation of kiosk for public, and partnership with the foodback (Face to Face and Presentations using software of choice).
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Horticulturist Guest Speaker - Times to be determined (Microsoft Outlook). ||
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">College Students || * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In addition to recruiting skilled labour from our student body, the College students & Faculty can be involved in the plant selection - an idea is to allow the students to “own” part of the garden by choosing plant(s) from the approved list.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">College students can support the activities of the younger students when they visit the roof during the planting stage.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Horticulture students can nurture seedlings using greenhouse facilities.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Document for publication / research
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Contribute to social media to keep community involved
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Host information sessions for the Sunnyville Community
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Write & submit stories for Sunnyville College community - Students’ Association, Staff newslettes, website, internal communication systems. || * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Build the maintenance of the roof into a project for a course.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Students responsible for maintaining the area of the garden they “own”. Document and communicate for future classes.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Act as resource for suggested solutions to problems (weed control, pest control, etc)
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Solicit student volunteers for service element and fulfilling college wide outcome of citizenship.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Catalogue the growth and development of the garden using photographs and field notes.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Document the maintenance collaboration for publication as part of the case study.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Student videos about life as a horticulturist through this experience. - how was theory integrated and applied into this project? ||
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">General Suggestions || * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Greg L - what about asking a class in the town’s sister city (who has a similar climate) to suggest a plant and we plant it (as long as it has a fighting chance) and share results with them. Maybe we can inspire that town to put in a living roof?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">EverGreen maintains a blog and twitter feed to keep the community updated on the construction and specifically the planting phase. This is something we could have involved classroom’s following and commenting as they work on planting (KH) || * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Greg L - Seniors and Jackie’s elementary school buddies to spend time together as an intergenerational project maintaining the roof on occasion. It could be a good way to build relations between the different generations?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Laura - This is a great follow up to the College students taking the creation of the roof to the Seniors through video and presentations.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is when EverGreen moves on to the next project, but we do have pre-designed industry education modules which could provide some student and community learns on how to effectively maintain the roof. These likely will need some supporting input from yourself or Laura based on the different plant selection.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Laura - happy to help with this resource. ||