14 Classes Running from March 3 – June 15, 2010

Taught By: Brian Turton, President, New England Landscape & Aquatics, LLC

Course Overview: This course will be a kid-friendly educational program taught at the Williamstown Youth Center one day per week to introduce children to the benefits of Horticulture and how it relates to their daily life. We will explore the science, health, and social benefits of Horticulture through hands on activities and field trips. The course will cover the following topics:

1. Plant needs
2. Plant growth
3. Health benefits ‐social, physical, mental, and related to healthy eating
4. Insects
5. Plant types
6. The big picture –how all this related to and is part of their daily life.

These lessons will be learned through a series of 14 classes. Hands-on growing of trees and vegetable crops will be an ongoing and daily aspect of the course. Classroom lessons will be taught in a kid-friendly fashion to include interaction of what children already know, drawing pictures and daily recaps of the day’s efforts and lessons. Field trips to the elementary school will take place at least once (weather dependent) to learn how plants are used to the benefit of them and the school, and learn about growth habits of different types of plants. Towards the end of the class we will conduct two outdoor activities at the WYC to implement what we have learned in class hands on. These days will be spent cleaning up the front entrance and the basketball area. On these days I may be bringing in some equipment for the kids to see and play with (without keys). Healthy living will be an overall theme of Horticultures’ relation to their lives and incorporated into all lessons.

At the end of the course children will prepare food from what they grew. We will send them home with some plants to plant at home and watch grow.