I’m a Gardener, not a Mathematician! Or am I? Robin Kirsch Brian Pacheco

Entry Event In conjunction with other classrooms, students worked together to create a school garden. Students put together raised garden beds, laid down soil, and planted seedlings we had grown in the classroom.

Building Science Background What do plants need? Life Cycle Plant Parts Soil What vegetables grow well on the Oregon Coast?

Food Guide Pyramid Through research on the Food Guide Pyramid, students learned about the food groups, nutritional value, and the daily recommended servings.

Integrating Mathematics Before filling our garden beds, we measured the area, perimeter, and volume. We calculated how many cubic feet of dirt we needed to buy.

Driving Question How can we as mathematicians create a plan to share with our families for a garden plot that would grow enough food to meet our recommended daily intake of vegetables according to the food guide pyramid?

What will our product look like? We wanted to create a guide book for families to make their own gardens at home – Planning grids to lay out how many vegetables, how far apart, and how big the garden should be – Artistic renditions of gardens to inspire gardeners – Recipe book for using vegetables We wanted to invite our families to come to school and eat with us and share our guides.

Integrating Mathematics VegetablePlants per Person SpacingYield in PoundsServings per Pound asparagus15 plants6 inches3 pounds3 servings beets10 plants2 inches3 pounds8 per pound broccoli2 plants18 inches2 pounds7 per pound carrots30 plants2 inches5 pounds7 servings kale5 plants12 inches4 pounds15 servings lettuce10 plants4 inches3 pounds15 servings peas30 plants2 inches3 pounds8 servings spinach15 plants4 inches4 pounds20 servings Table created by Robin and Brian based on information from the website “Harvest to Table” and the spreadsheet “Pounds to Servings Calculator” developed to help food service personnel calculate quantities of produce needed by a school cafeteria. The spreadsheet calculates poundage needed from a farmer based on desired number of servings and size. Conversion calculations have been taken from the USDA Food Buying Guide for Child Nutrition Programs.

Flow Chart 1. Find out how many servings you need for the month (90). 2. Choose a vegetable from the chart 3. Find out how many servings you will get from that vegetable.

Flow Chart 4. Add the number of servings from each vegetable you choose 5. Space the vegetables in your garden until you get them all. 6. Find out how big your garden is with area and perimeter.

Integrating Mathematics To plan our garden plots, we created formulas to find out how many vegetables we would need to plant: 1. serving of vegetables per day X days per month = servings per month 2. yield in pounds X servings per pound = total servings per vegetable

Integrating Mathematics

Making our artistic renditions…

Spacing the vegetables…

The Finished Plot

Home Gardens…