Planting Flowers and Herbs for the Riverside High School Community

Danielle Lopes
April 2024

Service Learning is a broad category which envelops the idea of practicing service
towards a particular group or community, while simultaneously engaging in an educational
activity. The blog post on Elmhurst University’s website, titled: “What is Service Learning”,
identifies three distinct types of service learning projects that exist. The first is “Direct service”,
followed by “Indirect service” and “Advocacy” (“What Is Service Learning?”). Any potential
service learning project would likely fall into one of these categories, depending upon the nature
of the activity and the interactions that exist between the participants and recipients.
Service learning is an incredibly rewarding experience which can benefit everyone
involved. The people who engage in serving a community are rewarded with the volunteer
experience, as well as an educational opportunity in the field in which they are performing the
project. The recipients of the service benefit from the service provided to them, which can vary
greatly depending on the project. Overall, the community at large benefits from a service
learning project, because serving one another is very unifying and builds relationships. In
addition, communities are enriched when education is provided, which is a key element of
service learning.
When deciding what to do for my service learning project, I reflected upon a previous
lesson that my students were particularly interested in and seemed to enjoy. We had just finished
a unit about genetics, and part of that unit involved planting multiple generations of plants and
performing pollination on our classroom plants. Since I knew that my students were interested in
plants, I came up with the idea to plant seeds with the students outside of regular class time, to
later give as small plants to the teachers and other faculty at Riverside High School. Because
Riverside does not have any after-school clubs, I had to be creative with my timing. I gave the
students a poll to fill out in class the week before, with options to come on Monday, Tuesday, or
Wednesday during either my preparatory period or my lunch period. Some of my students
already had a study hall or lunch period during these times, so it worked well for them to come
down to my room.
When the time came for students to participate in the project, they would come down to
my classroom, where I already had everything set up. Students would choose how many plants
they would like to plant and which seeds to use. The options were: basil, oregano, zinnias, and
impatiens. The students would fill their containers with soil, then plant the seeds and write the
name of the plant on the container using a marker. I gave instructions about how many seeds,
how deep to plant them, and other guidance as needed. This was a great opportunity for the
students and I to show our appreciation to the Riverside community by giving them starter plants
for their at-home gardens. I strongly believe that this would benefit the teachers and faculty by
reminding them and encouraging them that they are appreciated and valued. Not only was this a
chance to give back to our high school community, but this also provided time to learn about
Biology! I had conversations about planting, gardening, and many other things with the students
who volunteered. This opened doors for better student-teacher relationships, and more discussion
about the science of living things. I was very grateful and surprised to have so many volunteers
from my classes.
In leading my students through this service learning project, I learned so much as well.
First, I learned that building relationships and being open with my students about wanting their
help with this project was crucial. I was surprised by the number of students who volunteered to
help me with the plants, and I know that some of them agreed to come because they knew that
this project was important to me. Another lesson from this project was the importance of
following up and reminding volunteers of their commitments, especially when working with
high school students. The first time slot for planting fell on a Monday morning, which meant that
I had not spoken to my students about the project since the previous week. Not a single student
showed up for planting during that first time slot, and I later found out that all of them forgot
about it. Something that I could do to improve this project in the future would be to establish a
better system for communicating with students about the project dates that they signed up for.
Even something as simple as encouraging students to write the date/time in their phones as a
reminder would be an improvement.
One major strength of this project was its relation to Biology. We had just covered
material about plants and genetics, so this planting project was a perfect time to give students
another hands-on activity with growing plants. Another strength was the differentiation
incorporated into this activity. Students could select which seeds they wished to plant out of the
options provided, based on personal preference or predicting what the Riverside High School
Community would most enjoy. I was glad to give the students freedom and guidance while
facilitating a project that ultimately gave them more familiarity with biology as well as an
opportunity to serve the people who kindly serve them each school day.
Works Cited:

“What Is Service Learning?” Elmhurst University, 15 Nov. 2019, www.elmhurst.edu/blog/what-

is-service-learning/.