Cultivating Water Conservation Habits
at Lake Country Elementary

September 13, 2011 thru June 4, 2012

County: Highlands
Categories: Natural systems Water conservation

1. Describe the project

This project is designed to help 526 Pre-K through 5th grade students, at Lake Country Elementary, to cultivate water conservation habits through gardening. According to a 2005 Florida Geological water use survey, agricultural irrigation withdrew the largest amount of freshwater, at 2,766 million gallons per day with Highlands County reported at using 107 million gallons per day. Our desire is to provide our students with an understanding of current agricultural water use practices, then provide them with examples of alternative growing systems, that use less water, to explore and compare. We then want to challenge our students to develop their own water saving agricultural growing systems that conserve water resources, while reducing the potential for water pollution through waste water runoff.

2. What will project participants learn about water resources? How will you measure what they learned?

1. Students will learn about the varied kinds and reasons for agricultural irrigation, from providing water to meet the evapotranspiration demands of crops, to providing freeze protection and reducing heat stress. In addition to water’s use as an economical means of applying fertilizers and pesticides.

2. Students will monitor the state’s use of water for freeze protection through newspapers and computer research.

3. The Groundwater Foundation’s content and activities including water cycle in a bag, water cycle bracelets, and aquifer in a cup. Here they will look at water from a local to global perspective by gaining knowledge about how water impacts our area and how the Florida water aquifer functions.

4. Southwest Florida Water Management: Website materials, water conservation kit – Hands on activities that teach the importance of water conservation.

5. Watershed Education Resource Box activities and content to understand the impact of the hydrological cycle with the biosphere. Students will investigate relationships to everyday life and impacts we have on water resources.

6. Students will research about sink holes and how they are formed. This will give an insight into impact agriculture has on our water system.

3. What activities will participants in your project complete?

1. Investigations: watershed models, water cycle model, aquifer demonstrations, Student made Aeroponic systems, EarthBoxes (capillary action).

2. Students will go on a field trip to visit Delray Farms, a local commercial growing system, to see the real life application of hydroponic vegetable growing on a large scale.

3. All students will keep an interactive science notebook for reflections on literature connections, research and water conservation investigations. Student responses will be recorded and used for formative assessments.

4. Students will create lowcost models of Earthbox “like” growing systems, and design aeroponic grow systems.

4. How will your project's message and/or lesson be shared with the greater community (school community or neighborhood)?

Student knowledge and understanding of the concepts being taught will be measured in multiple ways: Formal assessment in fifth grade will include the District’s baseline and mid-line science assessment, project pre and post tests, teacher made,and FCAT science test in April. All other grade assessments will also include pre and post project tests, and teacher made tests. Informal assessment will include teacher observation of student’s working in collaborative groups, student interactive science journal data collection, project boards, and of course,most importantly, increase in student pride and ability to converse intelligently with others about Florida’s water resources and their concepts.

5. What is your project's timeline? Please include project start and end dates and project milestones.

November 14 Project Beginning Week 1 An inquiry into where water is found and the water cycle and how it functions.

Week 2 An inquiry into our impact on water and how water impacts our lives.(groundwater, watersheds, and agricultural impacts)

Week 3-6 An inquiry into agricutural impacts on water. Ivestigations into ways of conservation and smart plans for the future.

(Growing of plants will continue until May when students leave for summer.)

6. Will water savings be documented as part of this project? If yes, how will this be documented?

Community members and parents will be kept informed of student efforts through a variety of methods: Parents will view projects and thier progress when on campus for special programs, and quarterly parent conferences. All growing projects are and will be positioned so that projects are easily viewable: Hydro-Stackers (in-Kind) are positioned outside each grade level, AeroGardens will be found inside classrooms, Each grade level’s EarthBoxes and data charts will be positioned along outside walls so that all grade levels will have the opportunity to continually examine and explore projects at each grade level, Newspapers will be provided with regular updates on projects, and we will conclude the year with a Science Literacy Day on April 26th, when each grade level will put on display projects, models, and data charts. Students will also provide How To booklets on how to make affordable alternative grow systems to guests.

7. How will you acknowledge SWFWMD support of your project?

Acknowledgment of SWFWMD’s support will be widely proclaimed throughout the community,in multiple ways: on school website, announcements and information sent home (English and Spanish) in school newsletter, Newspaper articles, in Parent conference night (3 times a year) Project tours, Community share is planned during Science Literacy Day on April 26th, and signage placed around school. Finally, a DVD/PowerPoint will be created and shared at District level, and at SWFWMD’s mini-grant share day.

8. Is there a connection to your School Improvement Plan? If so, please explain.

Yes, This project is in direct compliance with our school improvement Plan, each teacher’s curriculum map, and many of our teachers IPDP’s. With our 5th grade students scoring 2nd lowest in the district with only 37% scoring at the proficent level, our School Improvment Plan is very specific about providing professional development for the teachers that will have a positive impact on increasing our student’s knowledge and understanding of essential science concepts. Our students are a diverse group with 58% second language learners and 82% Free and Reduced Lunch qualified. The impact of this is we have many students who not only struggle with the English language, but 82% live in or on the edge of poverty. These students have little to none background knowledge or experiences that help to connect them to content they are learning in the text books. They are in desperate need of a different type of instruction. Instruction that provides them with multiple opportunites for hands-on learning that will help them to create those bridges to connect standards their concepts and vocabulary, to something that they understand those visual and graphic experiences. The Major Sunshine State Standards (Big Ideas) that will be taught are: Reading/ Language Arts: Reading Process, Writing process, Writing Applications, Communication, Information and Media Literacy. Math:Geometry, Estimation, Measurement( length, depth, heights:inches, feet, and yards, weights) Area and Perimeter Science: The Practice of Science, Earth Systems and Patterns, Organization and Development of Living Organisms, Heredity and Reproduction, Interdependence. Social Studies: Economics Health: Health Literacy-Promotion of healthy lifestyles
Common Core anchor Language Arts standards: will be taught through Non-Fiction reading which includes science books, textbooks, brochures and online media using complex text, they will read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting, details and ideas, analyze how and why events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text, interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning(increase in greek and Latin prefixes, roots and suffixes to aide in building science vocabulary), analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g.,a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole, assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text, integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as
well as in words, delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well
as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence, analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

Additional information

Besides the materials above, we also have the watershed kits that will be used as well as additional materials/ booklets already ordered from SWFWMD. We already have some existing Hydroponic units to be used in the instructional process.
Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to apply.
P.S. everytime I save the application I lose the break down of teacher hours of participation. The total is 18,580 a breakdown of 35 teachers

Project budget

	Item	Cost	Notes from SWFWMD staff
	EarthBox EarthBox self contained water efficent growing system	$379.92
	EarthBox RB-REPLANT Replant Kit Replant Kit with Fertilizer, Dolomite and Replacement Covers for the EarthBox Garden to enable multiple plantings	$103
	AeroGarden pod covers-pkg 50 AeroGarden pod covers for labeling what is growing in the student created aeroponic grow systems	$49.75
	Universal Baskets/Pods - 50 Pack AeroGarden baskets that sit in the water for use in the student created aeroponic grow systems	$74.75
	AeroGarden 9401-00Z Extended Season Liquid Nutrients for Herbs Liquid Nutrients for student created Aeroponic Grow Systems	$196.2
	Grow Domes - 50 Pack Climate controll plastic grow domes that sit on top of the aeroponic pods for use in the aeroponic grow systems by students	$74.75
	Aerogarden ������® Compatible Replacement Grow Sponges Grow Sponges that fit inside the aeroponic pods/baskets for the use in the aeroponic grow systems by students	$59.900000000000006
	Plastic Shoe Boxes with lids plastic shoe boxes for the creation of aeroponic grow systems by students	$202.5
	EarthBox 1010053 Staking System Trellis system for the EarthBox Garden Kit	$279.92
	Cooperative Learning & Hands-On Science Kagan Instructional strategies for teachers to engage students in active learning	$116
	Science Buddies-Kagan Send home science investigations that will help to connect school-home-gardening	$76
	Reaching the Science Standards through Cooperative Learning DVD-Kagan Insturctional guide for helping teachers to develop insturctional strategies that help students to process and develop critical thinking skills needed for fully maximizing our gardening efforts.	$149
	Seeds-Park Seed Company Seeds for starting in Earthboxes, hydroponic units, and student created aeroponic units	$137.5
	Park-Bio-Domes-Park Seed Company climate controled rooting system that will help to provide sustainability	$199.6
	Bus expenses for field trip Bus expenses for 4 buses to visit Delray Farms Hydroponics	$800
	vista print signs these signs will be used at each grade level's grow site to display key concepts learned and to provide acknowledgements to SWFWMD for funding	$100

= approved
= denied