This post originally appeared in the Interface Magazine, April 2017 edition and has been republished with permission. You can see the online edition by clicking here.

Spade … check. Seeds … check. Compost … check. Watering can … check. OneNote … er … um … what? Three teachers and a group of Year 10 students at Mairehau High School are running a collaborative gardening project, with the aim of:

• Giving the students practical gardening (as well as digital) skills;
• Seeing something come out of their time; and
• Offering an authentic context for their learning.

“It has grown and is not just about their learning but also providing for families and home, and potentially a market garden,” said Tania Swann. “It has become a bit of an entrepreneurial project for the students.

Making a connection

The school’s planning team was assisted by Tim Muir, Microsoft Teacher Ambassador, Cyclone, Arnika Macphail, Professional Learning Manager, Cyclone, and Curriculum Consultant Kate Brown.

“In order for this to be successful, we needed the right balance of curriculum support and digital support. Kate helped us to come up with our big idea: ‘Communities work together to connect, nurture and grow’. We’d been using Google Docs with our staff and students. However, after hearing from Tim, we felt OneNote was going to be the right tool for this project. With the help of Tim and Arnika, we set up a OneNote Class Notebook for all the teachers and students.
“We’re also lucky enough to have our hands on the Digital Learning Experience from Cyclone, which means each one of the students and teachers involved has a Surface to work from, which definitely added hype to the project.”

Share and articulate

The project was allotted three hours a week in Flexible Learning Time.

“The students have had such a great attitude towards getting outside and it’s created a nice atmosphere to work in. They opted in and can opt out at any time but no one has.”

Among the green-fingered skills students learned were:

• How to plant potatoes;
• How to create beds; and
• Watering, digging and sieving.

“They love getting into the garden and out into the community, and enjoy doing their classwork on the Surface. We have made the most out of our trips to local nurseries, Cultivate Christchurch, and Bunnings by using the devices to take pictures and notes, all in the OneNote. Students can draw diagrams, annotate work, add videos, add audio, and share their ideas more freely.”

Everyone is enthused

The project has had a “massive ripple effect” through other staff members.
“We started with a big picture of the fact that it was so cross curricular in possibility, incorporating Biology, Maths, Media, etc., and wanted to connect all of these,” explained Kimberley Walker.

“On a daily basis, a person comes to the team to ask about it and how they can help. It started off as Social Sciences, English and Maths. We now have Hard Materials, the Arts and Science involved. Everyone involved is enthused.

“We have achieved so much from this one project and it has certainly snowballed into other ideas. The best bits have been the collaborative learning. The students are passionate and enthusiastic. Running something like this has kept them engaged at school and keen to participate.

“Having a shared outcome that we can physically see and touch has brought us closer together. We have things growing in our school garden. That is an achievement in itself. But thanks to the technology, we also have a detailed, up-to-date, accurate record of learning. OneNote has been fantastic. Through using the program, the students have been more forthcoming to share and articulate their understandings.”