Smack in the middle of the city of Clayton, surrounded by brick, mortar and asphalt, created by students during class time, lies a small native plant habitat.

We read about the Central Christian School students a few months ago in our September newsletter. They have now taken things a step further, with appropriate guidance from their teacher, and created a field guide to the native plants in their “Summit Garden”, a backyard habitat visible from their science classroom.

Their teacher, Deb Barham has agreed to share some of her teaching documents, and images of the finished product.

Outdoor Investigations contains a series of outdoor activities that require students to observe an outdoor space in a variety of ways. In the absence of a schoolyard open water source, their water quality tests were completed at LREC.
5th Grade Outdoor Spaces Unit Final Project: Summit Garden Field Guide describes the student activities that culminated in the development of the field guide. Each of the two 5th grade classes put together a field guide by combining their observations, skills and resources. Here is a sample of their product (click on the image to open the gallery):