Phase 2: Plan

   So for my resources I think that I have managed to surround myself with people who are willing to help and guide me through this process. The IDEA farmer and Ms. Jaegar have made themselves available to any questions we might have. Another very important source of information has been the previous person in charge of the maintenance of the garden last year, Sammy. We got some information on the kinds of things we could possibly grow from him and learned about some pesticide and there effects .
   This project, from the beginning, has been something that we wanted to do in order to help the Idea community. Both Nidia and I feel like the reconstruction of the garden will bring students as well as teacher, faculty and parents involved in the education of their kids. We want to make a difference by bringing awareness about organ produce and what not. We also want to make the students feel like they can help contribute to something bigger than themselves, something that could potentially change the lives of those involved in the process. This is why we decided to link it to the Wellness and Environmental Club, this way we could come across more of these kids.
   I have been keeping records of the activities we have done since we started the project. By posting on this blog, I am insuring that the things we do are made public and given importance.
   I would like to make a calendar with meeting and fundraising for the club as well as for when we do go out and work on the actually planting.  We also made a sponsor letter and we plan on passing out to those in the club next meeting this Thursday.

Process: 11/7/11

  So for the last couple of days we haven't been able to do much hands on work on the project. Nidia and I have had a chance to work on getting some grants for the garden though. We have been able to work more and more with the farmer and I think that this team work will result in a very successful product. The farmer sent Nidia, Josemaria and I some links and more information on a number of grants he thinks we will be able to get if we actually get on with it. I feel like we will apply for them and hopefully get them. As i had mentioned in previous posts we plan on working on the garden every Thursday, that plan continues. I feel as though this might become an issue as we move forward with this project as I also have cheerleading practice on that day. I will have to work on a solution for this minor issue but I feel confident that this won't cause that big of an issue.

Katie's Krops
www.katieskrops.com 

 Deadline: December 5, 2011

 Amount: up to 400 dollars and a digital camera to document project

This is the main one I was talking about. It is not as intimidating in terms of details as some of the other grants.

 Western Grower's Association
www.wga.com/default.php?id=138

 Deadline: November 15, 2011 

Amount: Up to $1500
Irrigation Kit courtesy of John Deere Water
Seeds
Teacher Resources
Local contacts to assist you in the planning, planting and sustaining of your garden
Local retail contacts that will work with you stretch your funds

YSA and State Farm Grant:
http://www.ysa.org/goodneighbor 

 Deadline: November 15, 2011
Amount: up to 1000

November 3, 2011 (Fundraising)

 Yesterday afterschool we sold to help fundraise for our project. We had some issues getting the stuff out there before the kids got out of their classes but we managed to come through...
The sale was a success; we made a total of 154. We feel really good about doing this again in the future to help out with the purchases of equipment or any ither thing we might need in the future once  we began working on the garden. Even though we still don't know what we might be needing, we feel like we want to have some money just incase things come  up. Both Nidia and I decided that we will continue to sell after for atleast two more days and then we should be fine. I would say that our goal was to raise about $300 dollars and by the looks of it it seem as though we will be able to to do so quicker that we expected.

November 3, 2011 ( Working on the Garden)

     So on Thrusday of last week we were able to go over to the garden and began looking at what we needed to learn in order to make our project a reality. We worked with the farmer to make the planting rows. This rows would be later used to plant carrots. We had alot of fun and decided that we wanted to go all out in this. We plan on working closely with the farmer and decided that a group of students together with Nidia, Josemaria and I will be going over to help the farmer every Thrusday afterschool.

October 26, 2011.

   Today both Nidia and I got the opportunity to meet with the farmer and talk about plans for the smaller garden located behind the primary building. We decided that it would be in everyone's best interest to work on something that would make this project a little more challenging. The organic garden will have raised beds of more sustainable plants that would allow us to effeciantly produce whatever we decide to plant. The farmer agreed on helping us brainstrom on the design of the garden we will be working on for the next 6 months. It makes me wonder how we didnt think of  talking to him sooner, the farmer seems really willing to have our help and is very welcome to us wanting to get the Idea student body involved. Tomorrrow we made plans to help him work on some projects he has in mind for the big garden. This way we can get an idea of the amount of work this will potentionally take. And also we want to build a relationship with the farmer so he knows that we have the drive and dedication to make this happen.

October 25, 2011

   Since we decided that our project was gonna be to replant the organic garden we have been able to accomplish a lot.Our 1st step was talking to some members of the USDA. We had some conversations on a possible partnership and they gave us some contact information and  data resources that they thought might be helpful. Even though what we wanted was to get them to possibly sponsor the project, their resources and connects have proven to be of great help and both Nidia and I are very glad we got them involved.


    Working closely with the Wellness and Environmental club, I have been able to get a group of student that will help make this project come to live. As the vice president of this on campus organization I am for certain that student will want to get involved and see the school become more environmental friendly and have more organic options at our cafeteria that were harvested from this garden.


   Nidia and I have been able to talk to Mr. Salas and get him on board as to what we want to see be the final product. Since he is in charge of school operations we thought that it would be in our best interest to have him know what our plans were. Luckily, he was able to bring us one step closer to this goal by sharing with us the addition of a farmer and a new wellness coordinator at our campus. We believe that this new members will help guide us through this process. We also requested some information to the previous garden supervisor and he was able to get us some more information as far what we will be able to plant. He was really excited to see us really into it and we assured him that we would work hard to star and maintain the garden in good conditions.


   We also decided that in order to make this possible we will be needing to fundraise. Even though most of the things we want to do won't cost a thing, we still want to have that  extra cushion to fall under if anything comes up.

http://squarefoot.creatingforum.com/

http://timssquarefootgarden.com/

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/improvement/lawn-garden/4322534

http://www.gardeners.com/

Investigation: Phase 1: Step 2

Phrase your topic into a question.

1.)  How can I remodel and replant the  organic garden at our school and help raise awareness among the Idea community?

  2.) As one of our first steps we talked to some of the USDA representatives and they agreed to make thmeselves ableable and answer any potential question we might have for our project.Also we know have a farmer on campus and he is the expert on this field and he alsoo agreed on being a part of this and supply us with information and some tools to make this alittle easier on everyone. Another person we are kind of counting on would be the new Wellness director that will be coming in soon to our school. We think that she could her us be the outlet in which we will star raising awareness on campus and across the Idea distric. & lastly but not least, the wellness club sponser Ms. Jaegar who said that she would help us with anything that we needed.

3.) I think that as i mentioned before these sources would be very reliable and would be the ones that would help me the most.


  My project would most likely fall under the community service and environment.

My areas of interaction  is community and services and environment because we are working towards remodeling the garden and getting people involved through community service and that way they can help us bring awareness to our school.

Our ultimate goal is to remodel the garden and through that help bring awareness to the campus as a whole. We will do this by bringing in people who want to help male a difference and want to learn about the environment and planting. By doing this we will ensure that our goal is being met and that we will be successful in the making of our project.

 My resources are the people i mentioned before for example the farmer at our school, my mentor, and Ms. Jaegar. I think that the only thing that would be unclear is the date by which this will be completed. I mean we can get the garden fixed in a couple of months but at the end if the day this will be something that we plan on working more on as part of a self growth project so it will be hard officially end it.

   I think that there is always room for improvement and that we could always get better at what we are doing but i feel like this is an awesome plan and I would probably not change much just because they way we set it up it is working very well for us, atleast up until now.

Investigation Phase 1:

What is my topic/field of interest (narrow it down as much as possible)?
   I decided that my topic/ field of interest is going to be gardening with a specific interest in organic produce at the garden in our school.


What (personal) goals do I want to achieve?
   As part of my project I have decided to collaborate with Nidia Cavazos in the task of reconstructing and remodeling the garden at our Idea Campus. We would like to achieve the complicated task of not only planting organic produce at our garden, but also to raise awareness and educate the generations at Idea to make better choices and want to get involved in wanting to make a difference.


Phrase your topic into a question.
  How can I remodel and replant the  organic garden at our school and help raise awareness among the Idea community?


What do I think might be the answer to that question?
   In order to make this happen I will need to work very deliberately in getting all of the things we need in order to make this into a really. I understand that this will take hard work and dedication, and I am willing to put it all in to make it happen. I want to have the satisfaction of knowing I have made a difference in my community and have shaped the way people think about organic food in general. We would like to get as many people involved in the process as we can, hopefully through this they are able to get a 1st hand look into what it all means and how important it actually is.


What do I have to do (find out) to check if my hypothesis is correct, to create my project?
 I will have to work extra hard and really make an effort into making this happen. I will need to work closely with whoever is in charge of the garden and the wellness program at our school. At the same time I am the vice-president of the Wellness and Environmental club, so I plan to use that media as an outlet to make student aware of what is going on and get them to volunteer and help with the process of cleaning, planting and harvesting.


How much time do I expect to need to do these things? 
 To be honest I want this to be more than a year long project, I am hoping that all of our hard work can pay off and this garden will turn into our "legacy" if you will. I will try my best to treat it as my baby and take care of it for as long as I graduate. I want other people to step up and be willing to take the challenge of continuing this project because this is not a 6 month thing. This  is something that I want to make sure continues throughout the years at Idea and people see as something of importance and a source of knowledge
.
Am I being realistic about what I can accomplish in six months?
   I think that because my project is more than a 6 month project that doesn't make it unrealistic.... I am hoping that I can continue on working with it into My CAS project and making an impact among the students and faculty. I can not express how important this is to me, this is the start of a life long project I have of living green and expanding the knowledge of each and everyone of the students here at our school.