THE OTHER SIDE OF POSSIBLE

PROJECT PROPOSAL
Project Title: The Growing Gardeners Afterschool Program
Student Investigators: Samantha Ballard, Simone McEwan, Spencer Chapman,
Kaitlyn Jones
Current Address: 229 Main St., Keene, NH 03435; Holloway Hall
Professor: Dr. Porter-Utley
Emails: Kaitlyn.Jones@ksc.keene.edu, Spencer.Chapman@ksc.keene.edu,
Simone.McEwan@ksc.keene.edu, Samantha.Ballard@ksc.keene.edu

Introduction
Through extensive research, our group has found that the Early Sprouts Program
here at Keene State College has a lot in common with our plant-based diet project; both
emphasize the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and incorporate more plant-based foods
into the diets of the youth. The Early Sprouts Program focuses on six target fruits and
vegetables: carrots, Swiss chard, butternut squash, bell peppers, green beans, and
tomatoes. With the support of Dr. Karrie Kalich, the director of the Early Sprouts
Program, and Lynn Arnold, the coordinator of the Early Sprouts Program, we have
developed project ideas that incorporate the Early Sprouts curriculum into a different
setting. Our ultimate goal, besides helping them find a love for vegetables, is to
encourage kids to try new foods and to be willing to try new things.

Background

Americans today are consuming a diet that is far from natural. The typical
American meal has morphed, consisting mostly of highly refined grains, large amounts
of meats and poultry, and processed foods with many added sugar and fats. It has
become extremely difficult for people today to integrate the proper amount of fruits and
vegetables into their diets. It seems that the general American population is misguided
and confused about what they should actually be consuming in their diets. The
American diet is directly impacting the growing epidemic of obesity and chronic
diseases such as cardiovascular disease and Type-2 Diabetes in the United States .
Another contributor to this growing problem is the lack of exercise, which many tend to
blame for problems such as obesity. However, the dietary choices are actually a larger
issue, and one which must first be tackled. There is an alternative way to feed the
American population while also drastically reducing if not eliminating the obesity
epidemic, and the solution is for Americans to go on a whole foods- plant based diet .
Whole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined
as little as possible, before being consumed . Whole foods typically do not contain
added salt, carbohydrates, or fat (Fisher, 2013) . What a plant based diet consists of is
mainly fruits, vegetables, tubers, legumes, nuts, and grains . As well as severely limiting
the intake of meats, dairy products, and eggs, and also excluding processed foods with
bleached flour, refined sugar, and oils.
The Early Sprouts Program was established in 2006 here at Keene State College
by Dr. Karrie Kalich. Early Sprouts is a program designed for preschool aged children to
expose and encourage them to a healthy and active lifestyle. The Early Sprouts

approach engages young children in gardening, sensory exploration, and cooking

throughout the school year. A teaching mechanism that is used is the implementation of
six target vegetables to provide the focus for exploration and discovery. As discussed
previously, the six target fruits and vegetables are: carrots, Swiss chard, butternut
squash, bell peppers, green beans, and tomatoes. Throughout the duration of the
program, they expose the children to the various types of fruits and vegetable in
different ways.

Methodology
Design
Our project idea is to create an afterschool program for children that would
promote healthy eating by using the concepts that are taught to Early Sprouts students
while also incorporating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (S.T.E.M.).
In this program, we would develop interactive and educational lessons that would
resonate with the children. One of the interactive lessons and activities that the staff will
be doing with the children is the process of building a garden to contain the six target
vegetables and fruits that Early Sprouts emphasizes. In order to incorporate S.T.E.M.
into the program, we would discuss the biological aspects of plant growth, the basic
math behind plant maturity, and try to apply different types of technology to the
gardening process, such as an irrigation system or a greenhouse.

The dimensions of our garden would be 3 meters by 3 meters. This setup allows for
easy access to the plants in the middle. There would be two sections of garden, 1
meter by 3 meters each, on each side of the garden with a walking space in between.
While there would be 9 square meters of garden total, only 6 will be used for gardening
-- 1 square meter for each vegetable. For our irrigation system, 3 meters of PVC piping
will be running along each side of the garden to water the plants, and 2 meters will be
used to connect it to a garden hose -- 8 meters of piping in total.
Participants
The participants in this project will consist of staff and students. The employed
staff must be educated, enthusiastic, tolerant, patient, and will be hired in accordance to
the number of children enrolled in the program. The class size(s) would be in even
numbers so pairing would work well for group activities, and to keep things sane, would
total no more than two dozen. The children admitted must fall between the ages of 5
and 10 years.
Materials
To construct our irrigation system for the garden, we would be using PVC piping
and a garden hose. To construct the garden, we would need seeds, soil, gardening

tools, plant support (stakes), plant label markers, and a good, flat area of ground where
the garden would be. We would need a drill and drill bits to make holes in the PVC
piping for the water to spray out to the garden. We would also need nails and other
construction tools.

Procedure
Construction of Garden/Irrigation
We originally planned out our garden to be 1m x 6m, but ended up changing the
dimensions to be 3m x 3m. Though a 1m x 6m garden would give ample room for
plants to be put in soil, some plants can be detrimental to the growth of others if in too
close of a proximity. A garden that size would not allow room for plants to develop
without concern for plant-to-plant interference at some point in the growing process.
Therefore, a solution that would allow room for people to walk through the garden while
also allowing plants to develop in their own semi-enclosed spaces would be a 3m x 3m
constructed frame. The construction for the frame of the garden would be composed of
plywood boards to provide an elevated structure. 1-inch diameter PVC piping will be
used for irrigation and roughly 8m of PVC will have to be placed properly within the
garden to supply water to the plants evenly. A durable and lengthy hose will be used to
connect the PVC to the water supply (i.e. on-site water spout).
Lesson Plans
The lesson plans for the two-hour after school program would be appropriately
structured to keep children learning and intrigued through the programs duration.
Ideally, the program would start off with a daily qualitative and quantitative analysis.
Details of the data collected would be age-dependent; older children would be expected

to go a little more in depth (i.e. patterns, recognizable deficiencies/detriments to health).

While we go more in depth as the age increases, we will be careful to make it
appropriate to the age group. For example, we will not be teaching them high school
level biology. Instead, we will teach them things such as, the plant is unhealthy
because the leaves are yellow. The lesson plan will involve doing activities related to
the S.T.E.M concept, such as discussing and understanding basic plant structure and
development and understanding basic processes like photosynthesis. In understanding
these concepts, children are at a greater advantage in understanding the basic needs of
a growing plant, what they receive, process, and give off. These concepts are important
to have a rooted understanding in, as they can be related to all of life, ourselves
especially.

Budget
Our starting budget is $5,000. We estimated the price of tomato seeds to be
approximately $2.99 per package, carrot seeds to be $1.39 per package, Swiss rainbow
chard seeds to be $1.39 per package, bell pepper seeds to be $1.39 per package,
green bean seeds to be $1.19 per package, and butternut squash seeds to be $1.49 per
package. We plan on purchasing 2 packages of each seed type which would make the
total price of seeds $16.80.
To construct our garden, we decided to use plywood boards that are inch thick,
which we estimated to be about $7.00 per sq. ft. The cost of the total amount of
plywood we will need to construct our garden is approximately $275. For our irrigation
system, we will be purchasing 8m of inch PVC piping and also 2 L-bends, 1 T-bend,
and 2 ends, which would cost us about $40.00. We decided on a small budget of $120

for construction tools and equipment. The rest of our budget will be used for field trips,
transportation, any costs associated with the location of our program, and unexpected
expenses.

Bibliography
Fisher, Kathy. (October, 29 2013). What is a Whole Foods Diet?. Received from
http://www.straightupfood.com/blog/2013/10/29/what-is-a-whole-foods-diet/