School Stories

Danbury High School - Danbury, CT

In 1998, the mayor of Danbury, CT, tossed a city-owned mansion and greenhouse up for grabs to the bidder with the best idea for putting it to good use for the city.

Sandy May-Fitzgerald, a biology special education teacher at the Danbury High School, proposed to take her "challenging" students and give the city back trained, educated, and responsible citizens—all while refining her science curriculum. The students would receive credits toward graduation and vocational training through their work in the greenhouse and around the grounds, offering the school and the city an opportunity to collaborate on many projects. Her proposal also extended an open invitation to students in any Danbury school to tour the greenhouse, making her greenhouse classroom a model for the community.

A Maturing Curriculum

Sandy and her husband celebrated the acceptance of her proposal by breaking out the paint and cleaning up the greenhouse. With a ready curriculum from her previous indoor plant room, Sandy filled the spacious 30-foot by 90-foot greenhouse with plants by the end of the first semester. Settling easily into the new space, she and her students prospered for two years on her previous production-based greenhouse model. When student interest took a turn, Sandy adapted and rewrote her entire curriculum.

"All along my goal has been to get to kids' emotionality through a hands-on experience with plants," says Sandy. "Because the propagation of plants for sale wasn't offering the students sufficient ownership of their work, I switched entirely to a project-based curriculum that offered choices." She organized projects into four broad categories: plant, business (including plant sales), service, and advanced projects, all of which involve a research component. Advanced projects may entail exploring hydroponics or developing a drip irrigation system.

"The projects involve data gathering and tracking, then final reporting," says Sandy. "That is the curriculum." At the end of the semester, students receive one class credit in biology, general science, math, or vocational training for the hour per day they spend in the greenhouse. Additional hours offer the students an opportunity to gain additional credit.

Life-Changing Lessons

Sandy's curriculum draws her students out of their "behavioral self-containment" and into relationship with the plants they care for. "I have seen kids begin to realize that a plant is a living thing," explains Sandy. "They learn that what they do to that plant on a day-to-day basis matters."

"I had one student who nurtured a geranium into a four-foot standard. When he graduated, he began work in a local garden center for double the minimum wage. He was astounded.

"Another student, streetwise and courting trouble with the law, sold cyclamens and poinsettias at a community holiday open house. In talking with the community, 'keeping the buck change' on $4 plants paid for with $5, and being the 'plant expert,' he began to recognize the community and a place for him within it. This young man had never viewed the school administration or community authorities in a positive way."

Since the start of the school year, students have been building plant stands from PVC pipe to donate to another special ed group. Measuring and cutting the pipe earns them math credits; having something to offer gives them incalculable self-worth. Sandy plans to market her project-based greenhouse curriculum for special ed students.

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