Take 5 Gardening at CFBC to be expanded to schools

Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC)

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, APRIL 19TH 2012 (CUOPM) – The Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College (CFBC) Science Club has announced plans to improve environmental practices in St. Kitts and Nevis by expanding the popular “Take 5” organic container gardening programme that was introduced to earlier this year.

“The new phase of the programme has been dubbed “Take 5 2.0,” and will begin at the Agriculture Open Day, sponsored by the St. Kitts Ministry of Agriculture on April 26-27, where elementary schools throughout the federation will receive a set of five seedlings. Schools will compete throughout May to see which elementary students do the best job of maintaining and documenting plant growth in their five containers. Take 5 2.0 will culminate with an award ceremony on Monday, June 4, where the top school will win a school farm makeover from the CFBC Science Club,” the college said in a statement on Thursday.

The Science Club President Tishanna Hazel claimed the focus on elementary students is a good way to create a stronger focus on sustainable agriculture.

“By working with elementary students and encouraging their participation in organic gardening, we are preparing the way for greater interest in farming in the years to come,”she said. Ms. Hazel also explained that the Take 5 2.0 programme will include distribution of a lab report poster board to each school where students are required to enter weekly observations of plant growth, watering, pest and disease impacts, and any plant mortality. Program participants will receive weekly emails and text messages with information and guidance from CFBC, and they will respond with weekly photos of their container gardens and any questions about plant maintenance.

The original Take 5 programme invited faculty and staff from the CFBC as well as members of the general public to bring five containers into the campus where they received seedlings of spinach and pak choy planted in a special blend of potting soil made from carbon-rich fill-to-press and top soil exposed by local road construction.

The CFBC Science Club is an organization whose mission is to educate the CFBC community and the wider society about environmental issues, to improve environmental practices on campus and throughout the island, and to sponsor environmental activities.

For more information, contact Dr. Leighton Naraine, CFBC Vice Principal (Ag.) at (869) 465-2856, or Ms. Tishanna Hazel, CFBC Science Club President, at (869) 765-3181.