1. May Environmental Update
Ms. O’Donoghue’s geography students
have been collaborating with students
around the world in Barcelona, Buenos
Aires, Cape Town, Delhi, Denver, Genoa,
Jakarta, London, Madrid, Miami, Moscow,
New York City, Tel Aviv, and Warsaw. The
students in Team 7 B at the Andrews have
been participating in the Global Scholars
Project implemented in the social studies
department curriculum all year. In this program students were
required to develop and implement a Community Action Project to
make their city more sustainable and improve buildings, transportation,
or green spaces in our city, and create a documentary video or website
to share your work globally. Students were required to begin by having
a class discussion to select an issue, determine your goal, and identify a
strategy for this project. Already inspired by the wonderful art of
gardening many students decided to focus on improving the self-
sustaining garden at their school or creating green spaces around it.
Students at the Andrews Middle School have been very busy planning
many environmentally friendly projects. After receiving a grant from
the P.T.O. the students were able to purchase grow lights for the grow
stations kept in their science and social studies classrooms. These grow
stations were instrumental in starting the seedlings of many plants that
would later be transplanted into the existing raised bed gardens
outside built by last year’s 7th
graders. Plants such as tomatoes,

2. peppers, basil, squash, cilantro, peas, string beans, and more were
started from seeds in the over sixty re-purposed tin cans collected by
staff and students in Ms. O’Donoghue’s class. Teaching students the
value in re-purposing household items for different purpose rather than
just purchasing new plastic planters with a carbon footprint.
After learning what a cold frame is in Garden Club and how it allows
you to grow health food all year long, students decided that they too
wanted to construct one for the Andrews Middle School. Students were
graciously gifted wood from School Committee Member Mea Mustone
and other parents to use to build this structure. Students had a great
day outside after a long week of PARC math testing last week and got
outside for the self-declared Garden Day with all of Team 7B rolling up
their sleeves and building this and other exciting projects.

3. COLD FRAME PROJECT
Ms. O’Donoghue and the Garden Club were awarded a grant from the
Medford Educational Foundation that allowed them to purchase a large
stock of wood and green house plastic that will also be used to build a
small green-house style cover for the larger raised bed in their garden.
The Medford Vocational Carpentry Shop will be collaborating with the
students of 7B with building this structure providing some with a nice
hands-on exposure to the many wonderful skills they can learn at the
vocational high school. This and the other two beds grew fresh
vegetables last summer that went to local food banks, senior centers, a
table at the farmer’s market for those in need, and low-income families
at the school. Students were encouraged to help themselves all
summer long as well as take turns sharing in the responsibility in
maintaining the garden teaching them the inherent value of team work

4. and community awareness.l
VERTICAL PALLET GARDENS
In keeping with the gardening and green space
theme, some students decided to take
gardening to a new level…a vertical level. After
learning about vertical gardening methods in
Garden Club and Ms. O’Donoghue’s social
studies class students learned that you don’t
need a lot of land to grow healthy food. That
idea and re-purposing proved to be just the

5. trick in creating a vertical pallet garden to grow strawberries and
lettuce. After a quick lesson on invasive plants students realized this
was the perfect way to introduce mint to their garden without worrying
it would take over. Students studied pallets and learned that you must
ensure that the pallet is heat-treated only and not with chemicals in
order to ensure the growth of healthy plants. Then they combined their
new found knowledge of this gardening method, perennial plants like
strawberries, and easy to grow lettuce and mint to grow the ingredients
for a yummy strawberry-mint salad.
POTATO TOWERS

6. After learning about the various ways for societies who lack land may
grow food, students decided to experiment with creating potato
towers. After learning that potatoes can be started from clippings and
save money. Towers may range from two to four feet high, these
simple vertical gardens are constructed of a cylinder of metal fencing
lined with straw and filled with soil. Simple to build, they also produce a
high yield also helping a family’s budget. Students at Team 7B received
a grant from the Medford Educational Foundation allowing them to
purchase wire fencing, chicken wire, wooden stakes, and student
families graciously donated the hay and potatoes needed to complete
these towers that add to our crop and don’t take up much space.
HYDROPONIC GARDEN

7. Another form of Gardening explored in Ms. O’Donoghue’s Gardening
Club is hydroponic gardening.
Students researched and
discovered the value and
convenience of creating year-long
attractive aquaponic gardens to
grow food using the nutrients from
fish. Although the students chose
to use gold fish for this project
they were taught that you could
use fish that were a food source
like tilapia and catfish. Plants that
easily grow in this set up are: any
leafy lettuce, pak choi, kale, swiss
chard, arugula, basil, mint,
watercress, chives, and most
common house plants.
Using the wood purchased with
funding from the Medford
Educational Grant and cut to
design by Ms. O’Donoghue herself showing the students the value to
vocational skills and re-purposed fish tanks were given from the staff
and students. Instruction will be given by Roots Down Hydroponic a
small business sin the community who has volunteered to conduct a
lesson in Ms. O’Donoghue’s class showing how to set up this fun and
scientific way of growing healthy food throughout the year.

8. GREEN SPACES
After studying that a community green space is an outdoor space that is
fully accessible to the whole community, a community garden, or an
area, or a wildlife area students were also taught about Urban planning.
This new profession has arisen from society’s concerns for health and
maintaining wellbeing through poor sanitation, overcrowding, and
exposure to environmental pollution. Students in Team 7B decided to
plant butterfly buses to attract butterflies after learning that certain
vegetation attracts various wildlife or insects. Other students decided
to add to the beatification process of the existing school garden by

9. painting several birdhouses and hanging them in the garden to
encourage birds to visit and eat unwanted insects allowing the garden
to be grown without chemicals and herbicides to deter bugs from
ruining our crop. Other students volunteered to clean up the area near
the Mystic River and collect trash and dispose of it correctly, recycling
when appropriate. A great day overall for students to get outside,
cooperate with one another , paint, plant, and learn how easy a green
space can be created for all to enjoy.