MAEAP & Your School Garden! So simple a kindergarten can do it!

Monday, December 22, 2014

MAEAP & Your School Garden! So simple a kindergarten can do it!

Attached is information about connecting your school garden with the Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program (MAEAP). Wondering why to pursue MAEAP verification for your school garden? Here are just a few of the benefits for Michigan schools:

Educate the next generation of Michigan air, water, and soil stewards.
Enhance academic learning in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) content areas though real world applications.
Support school gardens in improving management of natural resources and protecting the environment with proven scientific standards.
Teach natural resource stewardship principles as part of a project based learning unit.
Students learn to identify and prevent environmental risks and work to comply with state and federal environmental regulations.
Fosters a connection between schools and local and state resource agencies.
Receive a MAEAP sign after completing MAEAP verification, signifying to the community that MAEAP partners recognize the school garden is environmentally assured.

"Our students helped take the sample for the soil test and will be learning record keeping by using our new irrigation log" said teacher Matt Collins of Ojibwe Charter School whose Kindergarten Garden became MAEAP verified this week. The school is also excited to use MAEAP as a way to promote to the community that they are using environmental best practices.

(Ojibwe Charter School Kindergarten teacher Matt Collins and MAEAP verifier Erin Satchell working together to promote environmental stewardship in the garden)

Kathryn O'Donnell