For the past eight years, Mrs. Megan Petersen has been engaging her students with the addition of the tower garden to her physical education class.
While hearing the term "tower garden" may raise questions, rest assured it is exactly what it sounds like: a garden on wheels standing eight foot or so high. The tower garden utilizes a tub of water at its base and bright flourescent grow lights to help plants thrive.
On Wednesday, January 11, the kindergarten class at Hamilton Elementary watched in awe as Mrs. Petersen showed them how it works. Each student then had the chance to place a seed inside the fiber soil and take its spot in the garden.
"The tower gardens are a fun way for the kids to get excited about health," Mrs. Petersen said, "We found that over the years, it is tough to meet the kids' standards for health with pictures of food. However, once they interact with it and grow their own, they eat what they grow and learn how it all works."
Over the next several weeks, the students will watch their lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, snap peas, and much more grow.
"Some of the kids who don't like PE and the moving part, they love the health part and learning part, so they get really engaged and turn on a love for that through the tower garden, we have a lot of fun with it," Petersen added.
In February, Mrs. Petersen will put together salads for each student so that they can get a taste of the food they helped plant.
