The Senior School maintains a large 40' x 100' garden on the far fields of its 130-acre Fox Chapel campus. Students maintain the garden year-round.

Interdisciplinary Connections

• In the spring and fall terms, students may choose PE Farm as their athletics option and earn PE course credit for working on the farm. PE Farm students spend their afternoons planting, weeding, watering, harvesting and maintaining the garden.
• Environmental science students run soil sample tests, as well as examine mycology and the effects mushrooms have on bioremediation and human health
• Health courses utilize fresh SSA Farm food in the nutrition unit, learning about where food comes from, nutrient density in local and whole foods, and food access.

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Interdisciplinary Connections

• In the spring, students can choose Farm as their athletic/activity option and earn credit for working in the garden each afternoon. In the fall, a student Harvest Committee tends the garden. Tasks for both groups include planting, weeding, watering, harvesting and garden maintenance.
• Sixth and seventh graders study the role decomposers and pollinators play in our food system through demonstrations in vermicomposting. They learn about the farm's sustainable growing practices and explore our native pollinator garden.
• Seventh graders learned about ecological restoration, plant genetics and biodiversity by planting American Chestnut seeds.
• Seventh graders learned about seed vitality and plant biology through a time-lapse seed planting project.
• The Science Olympiad team restored a native and endangered species of ginseng through a planting project on campus.

The Junior School maintains five raised garden beds on its seven-acre campus in Point Breeze. Students help to maintain the garden during the school year. Volunteers tend the garden in the summer.

Interdisciplinary Connections

• All PK-5 students have the opportunity to help tend the garden beds and care for the hens, and in turn learn ecological and biological principles.
• Science class topics including the plant life cycle, beneficial insects, animal biology, nutrient cycling and taking food from seed to plate. Students learn about farm and food science innovators and inventions through hands-on lessons about techniques such as milling , fermentation and food dehydration.
• Pre-kindergarten students harvest fresh food from the garden for weekly cooking lessons correlating with their "Letter of the Week" curriculum. PK students also plant kale seedlings in class and transplant them to the Senior School farm each spring.
• First and fourth grade buddies learn about Mesoamerican agricultural practices by planting chinampas (floating garden beds) and starting their own salsa garden, from which they make pico de gallo.
• Third and fifth grade science classes learn about scientific experimentation by designing and conducting seed experiments to test independent and dependent variables of plant growth.

Country Day School maintains a U-shaped raised garden bed, which was a gift from the fifth grade class of 2016. Students help to plant and maintain the garden during the school year.

Interdisciplinary Connections

• Throughout the spring and fall, students plant, maintain, harvest and cook crops from the garden.
• In conjunction with science classes, students learn about biology of pollinators through explorations in the garden.