Project Lets Pupils Taste Fruits of Labor
When students at Topanga Elementary School get the munchies, they head straight for the salad bar in the school cafeteria, which currently features vegetables harvested from their very own organic garden. And we’re not just talking turnips here. The 500-square-foot garden boasts a variety of vegetables and flowers cultivated by the school’s student body, and includes a fish pond dotted with water hyacinths.
The school’s Healthy Children-Healthy Planet program--which includes garden planting, nutrition studies and fitness awareness--was recently selected by the National Gardening Assn. to receive a 1998 Youth Garden Grant. The award, which is partially based on community involvement in the project and the long-term sustainability of the garden, includes tools, seeds, plants and gardening tools.
The Topanga school has also been adopted by the Southern California Assn. of Nurserymen, which donated a gardening cart, rain gauge, gloves and trowels for student use.
To ensure that nothing edible goes to waste, lunchtime’s leafy leftovers are returned to the garden, where they are recycled into compost.
“The kids love this program,” said project coordinator Cynthia Riddle. “It gives them hands-on contact with soil and with the wonder of nature’s bounty.”
KUDOS
Whiz Kids: Fourth- and fifth-graders at Emelita Street Elementary School in Encino earned a handful of top awards recently at the fourth annual Los Angeles County Science Olympiad in Downey. The young scientists walked away with four first-place and two third-place awards in their age division, having proved their expertise in events as varied as aerodynamics, a scavenger hunt and crossword science.
“They studied hard for it,” said fifth-grade teacher Mimi Dagnew. “They took assignments home, where they built rubber-band catapults and studied friction with pasta-mobiles--cars they constructed out of pasta. They’re quite impressive.”
Aiming High: Twenty-eight students from Keri Vermillion’s classes at Pacoima Middle School are heading to the Great Western Forum on Saturday to celebrate their school’s selection as one of six citywide whose students achieved their personal and educational goals set out in the “Shoot for Your Goals” program, sponsored by the Los Angeles Kings, Staples and the Los Angeles Times.
The students will be recognized in an on-ice presentation at the Kings game, will receive a $250 gift certificate from the office-supply giant and will set a date for an on-campus visit by a Kings player this spring.
EVENTS
On a Roll: Students at Roscoe Elementary School are gearing up for Career Day at the Sun Valley campus Friday, when firefighters, police officers, cement truck drivers and others will roll their vehicles onto the playground for the youngsters’ exploration. A number of other professionals will visit the upper-grade classes to answer questions about careers in their fields.
All’s Fair: Science projects are lined up and ready for judging Saturday at Chaminade College Preparatory School, regional host of the International Science Fair. Students citywide will join the 300 Chaminade students participating in the event, which is the first step to advancement to the county-level competition at the Los Angeles Coliseum in April. National finalists will head to Texas in May for the international fair.
Class Notes appears every Wednesday. Send news about schools to the Valley Edition, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, 91311. Or fax it to (818) 772-3338. Or e-mail them to diane.wedner@latimes.com
