e-news

Apr 22, 2021

Summer Workshops

Registration is now open for four one-day workshops. Amy and Doug are traveling across the state to:  Beaufort County (June 15) Cancelled Forsyth County (June 17) Full – Please join the waitlist Pitt County (June 22)  Haywood County (June 24) These hands-on workshops are designed to equip K-8 teachers, school staff and Extension volunteers with teaching tools for the… 

Apr 16, 2021

Teacher Spotlight: Jackie Tingen

It was only 3 years ago that Jackie Tingen met Amy and Doug and began incorporating AgEd into her STEM enhancement classes at Dixon Road Elementary School in Willow Springs, NC. In that short time, she and her students have done some remarkable things. From winning blue ribbons to raising hundreds of dollars through a… 

Feb 22, 2021

Teacher Spotlight: Jennifer Brazee

Jennifer Brazee has been teaching for 14 years and is currently a K-5 “Connect” teacher at North Kannapolis Elementary in the Kannapolis City School System. While a veteran of the traditional classroom, she describes herself as a novice gardener and outdoor educator. It was only 2019, when she started teaching outdoors. Her focus had simply… 

Jan 20, 2021

Start Small: Microgreens

A couple years ago, we fell in love with microgreens as an indoor crop choice. First there were the practical reasons: The start to finish is as short as 7 days, It’s easy to offer individual, student-sized containers, They can be grown year round, even in mid-winter, without supplemental light, You can harvest multiple times… 

Jan 20, 2021

Starting Seeds

On the persistent cloudy, rainy days of winter, take an opportunity to plan for spring and get started indoors. Check out these videos for know-how and tips for success. Remember, you can check out the STEM To-Go playlist on our YouTube channel to find more videos. If you’d like to suggest a video topic, share your ideas… 

Nov 17, 2020

Finding Safe Solutions

If you haven’t seen an episode of WGRO News, you are missing out. The weekly news broadcast was Janet Childress’s solution to making sure her remote learning students were kept up-to-date on the happenings in the gardens at A.T. Allen Elementary in Concord. Her tagline was “Bringing the gardens to you, when you can’t come… 

Sep 16, 2020

“Go Bags” Ease Transition Outside

Do you want to utilize outdoor space for teaching, but do not have a designated outdoor classroom? Consider creating “Go Bags.” Each student has their own bag, eliminating the need for teachers to disinfect items between groups of students. Each tote bag or reusable grocery bag would contain the following items, many of which can be brought… 

Sep 14, 2020

Video: Harvesting Sweet Potatoes

It’s time to don your eyepatch and your best pirate accent to dig for buried treasure in the garden! The sweet potatoes arrrrrgh ready (or almost ready) to harvest, matey. Doug has some tips and tricks for harvesting your sweet potatoes. Don’t miss the special appearances by some of our local elementary school students as they… 

Jun 16, 2020

Video: Planting Sweet Potatoes

Sowing seeds or digging a hole to bury the rootball of a transplant are the most common means of starting a garden crop, but there are some plants, like sweet potatoes, where a cutting is essentially directly rooted in the ground. These cuttings are called slips and the time to plant sweet potatoes is late…