Home> Join

Agreement between Colorado State University Extension/ 4-H Youth Development Program and Participating School

Earth Gardens provides hands-on experiential lessons in a school setting for K-6 classes. The vision of Earth Gardens is that every individual will have the opportunity to be enriched by gardening experiences. The mission of Earth Gardens is to enrich youth in school by developing an awareness of our renewable and sustainable habitats with hands-on experiences through gardening. There are 42 classroom lessons for indoor and outdoor settings. Key points of the program involve free seed packets and free bedding plants to landscape schools. Seed packets can also be used to plant vegetable gardens, herbs and flowers on the school grounds. In addition, Colorado State University Master Gardeners can be matched up with classrooms/teachers who need additional assistance with horticultural subject matter.

Teacher/School Benefits:

• Free copy of the Earth Gardens curriculum that includes over 40 easy-to-use lessons for indoor and outdoor settings.

• The curriculum involves teaching science and math skills that could help students on the CSAP test. It also depicts the SCANS icons (Secretary of Labor's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills). These workplace competency icons include: utilizing resources, working with others, using information, understanding systems and working with technology. Foundation skills include: basic and thinking skills and increasing personal qualities.

• This curriculum has been aligned with the Colorado Department of Education Model Content Standards in Science

• Free vegetable and flower seeds available year-round to participating schools up to 30 packets upon completion of Teacher Evaluation.

• Free bedding plants available in May to participating schools in the Denver metro area upon completion of Teacher Evaluation. Counties included are Denver, Boulder, Adams, Jefferson, Arapahoe, Douglas, & Broomfield.

• A mentoring program between teachers and Colorado State University Master Gardeners to provide valuable technical and horticultural subject matter information.

• A link to Colorado State University, Colorado's land-grant university that provides research-based information to the citizens of Colorado.

• Access to Colorado State University Extension's Fact Sheets and Service In Action sheets on horticultural and other information. Access to buy the CSUCE CD ROM on horticultural information for $25 or download them free at http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/garden/pubgard.html.

• Access to the National Gardening Association's mini grant program that provides $500 grants to hundreds of schools annually for gardening programs. Applications are due November 15th annually.

CSU Extension/4-H requirements for participation:

• Annual sign-up for school participation listing school, address, phone number and teacher contact.

• Agreement to teach at least six of the over 40 included lessons in the Earth Gardens curriculum.

• Agreement to provide a summary of classroom participants including numbers, age, grade, sex and ethnicity on the provided form. Individual names and addresses are not needed. This information is required for 4-H's federal reporting purposes. Information must be provided before free seeds and bedding plants will be provided.

• Agreement to administer a short program evaluation to all participants, and to return it in a timely fashion to the appropriate county 4-H Extension Agent. Evaluations will be provided to schools.

• Agreement to the potential for administering a pre-and post knowledge test to randomly selected classrooms for CSU Extension 4-H evaluation needs. This is not a survey, and as such, will not need parental permission. Tests will be provided to classrooms.

To participate, please complete the form below:

(For schools outside of Colorado , please contact Tom Fey to arrange payment)

I agree to abide by the above terms Teacher's Name: Date: School District:   School: School Phone: Mailing Address: City: State: Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming Zip:   E-Mail:   Classroom Information Participants Grade: Kindergarten 1st Grade 2nd Grade 3rd Grade 4th Grade 5th Grade 6th Grade Special (press CTRL to choose more than 1) Participants Residence: Farm Non-Rural: Under 10,000 Town & City: 10,000 - 50,000 Suburb: Over 50:000 City: Over 50,000 Adult Volunteers: White Male Female African American Male Female Native American Male Female Hispanic Male Female Asian Male Female   School Enrichment: # in Class Male Female Total # of Students   Racial-Ethnic Distribution White African American Native American Hispanic Asian