Project Learning Tree Provides Greenworks! Grant Support

GreenWorks! grants engage Project Learning Tree educators and their students with their local community in "learning-by-doing" environmental projects. Student leadership, service-learning, and community participation are the cornerstones to GreenWorks! projects. These grassroots action projects enable schools and youth organizations across the country to make a positive impact on their communities.

Collective Roots received a Greenworks! grant from Project Learning Tree in 2007 to fund the development of mulitsensory gardens.

Garden Club students researched and planted five senses herb gardens to complement garden based learning at the schools where Collective Roots is delivering services. Sensory plants continue to be planted by students on a year round basis—a theme element of our curriculum and garden. Students plan seeds and starts of plants that allow exploration of each of the five senses. For example, students planted lamb’s ear, bunny tails, nopales, sensitive fern and quaking grass for touch; scented geranium, sweet grass, and pineapple and chocolate mints for scent; many herbs, such as oregano, lemon balm, and cilantro for taste; and a variety of butterfly host and nectar flowers for sight. This approach to learning is the opposite of “spoon feeding” information to students that they must memorize or later recapitulate in tests. Students are provided leadership opportunities to assist in developing an educational experience that has personal meaning, involves the creative process, and helps create an educational resource that enhances their learning and school environment.