News Release
May 7, 2009

May 7, 2009

Powell first graders help grow Mother’s Day gifts at UW research center

Mothers of first graders in Powell this Mother’s Day are going to be beneficiaries of nurturing.

That’s when their sons and daughters will bring home as gifts plants grown by the Park County Master Gardeners and transplanted into containers by the students at the University of Wyoming Powell Research and Extension Center greenhouse.  The plants are kept in the greenhouse and acclimated and delivered to the schools the Friday prior to Mother’s Day. Students from Parkside and Westside elementary schools and School District No. 1 summer school students in kindergarten through second grade participate. This is the third year of the program.

“The child-like excitement, enthusiasm, curiosity and joy the kids exhibit when they enter/exit the greenhouse is both evident and enlightening,” said Bob Prchal, Park County UW Cooperative Extension Service Master Gardener, who coordinates the program.

Since the program started, more than 261 students have learned about plants and how to grow them.

The greenhouse offers a rich and nurturing hands-on experience for children, said Prchal.

 “The educational potential is unlimited. It is known people learn best through interaction and application,” he noted. “Students are afforded an opportunity to experience a diverse variety of plants and a wide variety of age-appropriate horticulture topics.”

The program provides students initial exposure to plant science. It also includes the purpose of a greenhouse, discussion of basic plant parts and their functions, the edible plant parts and those plant parts not eaten but their substances are used in products we use, good and bad insects and hands-on transplanting.

The students transplant their individual plants, and then are given final instructions for planting and nurturing those plants in their parents’ gardens in honor of Mother’s Day.

Prchal said students two and three years removed from the program have told him they are now actively involved in aspects of gardening with their parents or grandparents.

He said he’s learned that attitude and motivation enhance the learning success of the students.

“Working with kids is a wonderful, humbling, grounding experience,” noted Prchal “Plants are a lot like kids: they require food, water, shelter and a little love.”

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Contact: Steven L. Miller, Senior Editor
Phone: (307) 766-6342
E-mail: slmiller@uwyo.edu
Archived News Site http://uwadmnweb.uwyo.edu/UWAG/news.asp

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