Northport instructors implement gardening for grades program

Northport K-8 School middle grades instructors Amanda Sartain and Kalyn Nova received an innovative and exciting grant from Lowe’s Toolbox For Education called Gardening For Grades. The students and teachers are beginning the garden at the school using the Florida Ag program which provides a positive learning experience for students to develop leadership skills, responsibility and community pride through organized gardening activities. The program is designed to incorporate science, math, language arts, geography and a plethora of other subject area disciplines. Students will experience growth observation from seed,  measurement of growth, design experimentation and growing plants found in historic novels. Research has proven that gardening in schools positively influences students environmental attitudes, nutritional attitudes, self esteem, test scores, school community attitudes, interpersonal skills and behavior. The Grades For Gardening program is a win/win experience for the entire school community.