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Schenectady
High School
January
27, 2010
Two Schenectady
High School teachers
receive grants for classroom & community collaboration programs
Two Schenectady High School teachers were recently awarded
two school program grants totaling $1,000.
Colette McCarthy,
a science teacher at Schenectady High School and advisor of
Nature's Classroom Club and Kris Foote, family and consumer
science teacher at Schenectady High School received a $500 Kids
Growing Food Garden grant from Cornell University and $500
Climate Change Energy Education Award from the New York
State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).
The Kids
Growing Food Garden program is designed to connect kids to
agriculture by actually growing food at school. The grant
provides educators with financial start-up funds and educational
tools that help integrate knowledge of the food and fiber system
into the classroom.
The teachers were
awarded $500 as "seed" money to help them purchase what is
necessary to start a garden classroom. Garden-based lessons will
be integrated into regular classroom studies such as math,
science, language arts, and history.
McCarthy and Foote
said they wanted to find an opportunity for students to increase
their understanding and appreciation of agriculture, nutrition
and the food system. They agree that growing
food at school will help the students gain an understanding of
how the local food system works and serves as a link to local
farmers, businesses and others involved in agriculture. As
recipients of the grant, the teachers will receive educational
resources, workshop opportunities and access to a growing
network of school food gardeners through the Kids Growing Food
Network.
The
cross-curricular plan includes an array of teachers of different
grades and subjects, as well as administrative and custodial
staff from both Schenectady High School and Central Park
International Magnet School. The grant not only requires
that students from elementary to high school be involved but
also calls for community involvement. Representatives from the
Central Park Greenhouse and Roots and Wisdom both Schenectady
County Cooperative Extension programs are partners in the program.
Since 1998, Kids Growing Food, a New
York Agriculture in the Classroom program, has helped create
and support over 325 school food gardens, providing K-12
students throughout New York with hands-on food growing
experiences. For more information about the program,
visit the NY Ag in the Classroom website at
www.nyaged.org/aitc/
New York.
McCarthy and Foote
were also awarded a Climate Change Energy Education Award
from NYSERDA. The teachers received $500 to
support their proposal, A Blooming Idea: Implanting
Climate Change in Indoor/Outdoor Gardens.
Within the
proposal they presented an opportunity for students to increase
their understanding and appreciation of using energy wisely and
moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The teachers
said their goal is to promote sustainable pro-green behaviors in
Schenectady High School students, their families and the
community. The program will support efforts to
involve students in community-based energy projects.
This grant program
will also include array of teachers of different grades and
subjects as well other staff members from Schenectady High
School.
For more information about the Climate
Change Energy Education Award, visit the NYSERDA website at
www.nyserda.org
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