Before the first seed is planted, Madison students have some problems to solve.
Where should a garden be located? How much sunlight will it receive? Is there access to water? What should the raised beds look like? What should go underneath them? What should be planted — and how can students keep the project growing from one school year to the next?
Those questions are at the center of a new student-driven, cross-curricular project bringing together Butler Tech agriculture and engineering students at Madison Local Schools.
And the students are doing much more than simply following directions.
“They are the ones who are gathering this data and then drawing those conclusions and working through those obstacles,” said Corri Hernandez, Butler Tech Innovative Teaching & Learning Coach. “The teachers are there offering guiding questions and support, but not jumping in to offer the right answer.”
Engineering students in Emily DeYoung’s classes began by examining potential locations for raised garden beds around the Madison campus. Each option comes with its own advantages and challenges.
One area behind the school provides convenient access to water, relatively flat ground and limited foot traffic, but it also spends a significant portion of the day in shade. Another area offers more sunlight but is farther from the building, has less convenient access to water and presents additional considerations because of how the space is currently used.
Students have been tasked with gathering information, evaluating the tradeoffs and presenting their recommendations to other students and building administrators.
“The engineering students have presented their possibilities and recommendations for the locations and fielded those questions in real time,” Hernandez said. “They’re able to answer those questions because they are taking ownership of that research.”
That same ownership is carrying over into the design of the raised beds.
Engineering students are working through questions involving dimensions, materials and the foundation beneath the beds while applying the engineering design process to an authentic project.
At the same time, agriculture students in Ms. Jo’s classes are evaluating those ideas based on what the garden will actually need to support successful growing.
Hernandez recently watched that collaboration unfold spontaneously when a group of engineering students approached agriculture students with an idea for using compressed sand beneath the raised beds.
“They came up and pitched an idea about compressed sand at the bottom so that it would give the beds a foundation,” Hernandez said. “The engineering students were explaining why they thought it would work, and the agriculture students were processing that information and doing real-time research. It was really cool to see all of that happening.”
That exchange captures what makes the project different.
Rather than two classes working independently on separate assignments, students are relying on one another’s expertise, asking questions, testing ideas and revising their thinking as the project develops.
Agriculture students are also researching the growing side of the project, including bed depth, root structures, planting cycles and seasonal limitations. They are considering how many planting cycles might be possible and what types of crops could give the garden a larger purpose.
One possibility is a salsa garden, which could eventually provide produce for Butler Tech culinary students at Madison to use in their own learning.
Students are also looking at ways to connect the project to younger learners in the district. One idea would allow elementary students to start plants while learning about agriculture before those plants move into the program’s hydroponic growing towers and, eventually, into the outdoor garden beds.
The project is also forcing students to think beyond the traditional school calendar. Some of the most important growing and maintenance periods happen during summer break, creating another real-world problem for students to solve.
That has led to conversations about long-term sustainability and how FFA members could potentially incorporate garden maintenance into Supervised Agricultural Experience projects.
The goal is not simply to build several raised beds, plant something and move on.
Students and teachers are already thinking about what the garden could become over one, two and three years — and how future students might continue to develop what this group begins.
“The student ownership and the student-led components are so multifaceted in this project,” Hernandez said.
That long-term thinking could ultimately make the garden a legacy piece of the Madison campus: designed by students, built through collaboration and continually shaped by the students who follow them.
For now, though, the most important work is happening before anything has been built.
Students are learning how to identify a problem, gather information, communicate across disciplines, defend an idea, respond to feedback and change direction when new information demands it.
The garden will eventually be something people can see.
The learning that makes it possible is already well underway.