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April 2007
Our Schools As Jewels
Watching Roosevelt Students and Garden Grow
While Roosevelt Middle School students are growing academically inside their classrooms, there is a lot growing outside their classrooms as well. For the past seven years, the middle school students have honed their horticultural skills and knowledge while creating the “Roosevelt Schoolyard Garden,” complete with a vegetable garden, a butterfly garden (plants), full greenhouse, solar-power, and worm and plant composting. The gardeners include students in the school’s Garden Club, the “6 to 6” Program and various classes. Besides gardening, the students learn to cook the food they grow. For the past five years, Heather O’Donnell, seventh-grade science teacher and science department chair, has been the Garden Club’s advisor.

Situated on school property that is shared with the San Diego Zoo, the garden is part of a joint venture with the zoo. The zoo pays for the utilities and provides occasional horticultural consulting in return for using part of the property for a picnic and camping area. For more information on this project, contact O’Donnell at hodonnell@sandi.net or (619) 293-4450, ext. 4807.

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Roosevelt Elementary Garden  Roosevelt Elementary Garden  Roosevelt Elementary Garden