My Garden Biology classes draw upon a range of natural sciences to inspire awe and fascination for the natural world. If your learner completes a full cycle of this class they will become an expert naturalist! This is not your average biology class. I fill in the gaps left by core biology curriculum and go into greater detail about the mysterious lives of plants. Biology was my favorite subject in high school, but the textbook curriculum left me with many unanswered questions. It wasn't until my undergraduate degree that I found answers to how these miraculous natural systems work. But your learner doesn't need to wait until university to find answers. 

My specialty is teaching advanced natural sciences using metaphor, games, and an interactive teaching style that captures the attention of young people. The amazing thing about teaching on Outschool is that there is plenty of time to investigate the often unexplored mysteries of nature, like: how does a snail’s tongue work? I collect lots of fun information along with big ecology concepts to create a mind-blowing adventure for your learner. This is not a how to garden tutorial but everything I teach connects back to gardening and will give your learner a deep intuitive understanding of how to work with plants. Perfect for gifted learners who need more challenging material or students that are bored with the standard biology curriculum and need a more interesting way to engage with science. 

Class begins with a fun warm up activity then our weekly "nature mystery challenge". I find that this format helps students stay engaged and keeps them excited about coming back to class.

                                      (A full year of unique classes. Join at any time.)
𝗙𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗹𝗲:                   
October 21st
Photosynthesis, Sugars, & Cellulose - Plants power all life on earth by storing the suns energy as sugars
	
October 28th
Food Chains, Carbon, & Climate Change - Plants sequester carbon dioxide all the time by turning it into cellulose
	
November 4th
Water’s Functions in Plants - The ability to draw water up a stem gave vascular plants and evolutionary advantage
	
November 11th 
Water, Soil, & Erosion - Clean water is created by water moving deep under ground but hard soils create polluted runoff
	
November 18th
De-composers & Fertility - Life comes from death especially when it comes to plants and soil
	
November 25th
Fertilizers, Algae Blooms, & Organic Fertilizers - Chemical fertilizers result in a lot of pollution. Instead, we can enlist the help of soil microorganisms!
	
December 2nd 
Reproduction & Seed Dispersal - Every seed wants its own space to grow. So every plant must figure out a way to spread their seeds around.
	
December 9th
Seed Dispersal, Climate Change, and Abundance - Seed dispersal allows plants to travel across continents and adapt to changing climates.
	
December 16th
All About Flowers - flowers have many important ecological functions beyond looking pretty. 
	
January 13th
All About Flowers - There are thousands of insects which depend on flowers for food. 
	
January 20th
Plants vs Bugs - How do plants protect themselves from insect herbivores?
	
January 27th
Plants vs Bugs - Chemical defenses and beneficial insects
	
February 3rd
Beneficial Insects - Insects might bug us but we need them to survive.
	
February 10th 
Beneficial Insects - Prey insects feed a wide range of important animals
	
February 17th 
Beneficial Insects - Predatory insects can help us control a wide range of insect pests 
	
February 24th 
Endangered Species & Ecosystems - how do extinction events threaten the stability of our entire ecosystem and how could that effect humans? 
	
March 3rd
Ecosystem Services - nature provides us with many underappreciated services without which life on earth would be very difficult.
	
March 10th  	
All About Mushrooms - The mushroom life cycle and saprotrophs: natures clean up crew
	
March 17th
Parasitic Mushrooms - Natural pest control and the amazing ability to make homes for woodland creatures by hallowing out trees
	
March 24th 	
Mycorrhizal Fungi, and the other Half of Plants - Mycorrhizal fungi form associations with 90% of wild plants but we’ve been farming without them since the invention of the plow
	
March 31st 	
The Theory of Evolution & Natural Selection - Two Islands, two finches, and Darwin's discovery
	
April 7th 	
The Evolution of Vegetables and Artificial Selection - Most vegetables have co-evolved with humans and have changed drastically from their wild counterparts
	
April 14th  	
The Geological History of Earth - Earth before life
	
April 21st 	
Prehistoric Plants - The first photosynthetic organisms and the first ecosystem
	
April 28th 
The Evolution of Plants - What evolutionary leaps have plants made to become the greenery that we know and love today?
	
May 5th 
Intro to Soil Science - What is dirt made of? 
	
May 12th 
The Geology of Farmland - Mountains turn to dust and eventually great farmland
	
May 19th 
Desertification - Farmland can turn into deserts if it isn't cared for properly
	
May 26th 
The Dust Bowl and Soil Organic Matter - There is a fine line between deserts and grassland. Most of our farmland lies on these vulnerable areas
	
June 2nd
Grasslands & Carbon Sequestration - We can sequester the same amount of carbon we currently produce and create amazing soil at the same time
	
June 9th 	
Soil Nutrients - What are the nutrients that plants need to grow and what do they do inside of plants?
	
June 16th 	
Soil Nutrients - Understanding the nitrogen cycle, phosphorous, and pollution
	
June 23rd 
Soil Nutrients - What are natural sources of nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium (NPK)
	
June 30th 
Plant Characteristics - Identifying common families of plants by their leaves and flowers
	
July 7th 
Plant Characteristics - Identifying the carrot and squash family 
	
July 14th	
Plant Characteristics - Identifying the onion family and the bean family

My mission on Outschool is to equip this upcoming generation with the scientific knowledge that they need to solve the many ecological crisis that we face today. The simple act of planting a garden can create shelter for small creatures, create food for pollinators, feed birds and other small creatures, sequester carbon dioxide, and manage the flow of water through the watershed to create clean streams and lakes. I want your learner to feel empowered. I want them to feel like they can grow plants and be a part of the solution. I try to offer lots of solutions in my classes because it can be scary to hear news of wildfires, climate change, and endangered species without knowing what to do about it. With a deep understanding of plants and ecosystems, there are plenty of solutions. 

In the Garden as Habitat section of this class we look at ways we can create habitat for wildlife, like planting bunch grasses, native flowers, and keystone species. In Plant Characteristics section, I encourage students to take a close look at the leaves and flowers from different families of vegetables so that they can identify common families of plants. My hope is that learners become more curious about the nature around them and start to observe the subtle differences in leaf and flower patterns.

In the Evolution* of Plants section of this class I take your learner back to the beginning of time, when earth was just dust gathering around the sun. Then we observe the earliest relatives of plants back when they were single celled organisms floating in the oceans, and we look at some incredible imagery of microscopic algae and their predators which are still alive today and imagine what life on earth would have looked like two billion years ago. We continue through the story of geological time to observe some of the incredible evolutionary leaps that plants made from surviving on land to defying gravity.

Much of what I teach is not available to young people anywhere else. This type of information is stuck in science journals and scholarly articles that are inaccessible to young people. But I make this information come to life and take learners on a journey that will leave them awestruck and inspired. 

This class is a great way to introduce your learner to science. It does not require prior knowledge or include too much scientific lingo. I am particularly good at making the science concepts approachable and understandable. I use props like legos and home experiments to make the scientific concepts accessible to a variety of learners. 

If your learner has an interest in growing vegetables, growing flowers, trees, the forest, or nature in general than they will love this class! I love to show my plants on screen and use them as examples. I will use real life examples, games, and nature photography to make my class come to life. 

As a teacher, I am particularly good at encouraging classroom interaction. Learners are often surprised by how much they are talking and thinking in my classroom. However, my class is also a safe space for learners who may not feel comfortable talking or appearing on screen. I celebrate neurodiversity and can adapt this class to a variety of learner needs. Please contact me about how I can accommodate for your learners needs.

There is a hidden drama taking place right under our noses at every moment in the natural world. I hope to make this drama come to life for my students and inspire them to take a closer look at the life around them. 

You can expect to see classes that draw upon the fields of plant physiology, soil science, ecology, hydrology, earth science, entomology, mycology, and geology woven together, into a mind-blowing adventure for your learner.  

My classes start with 10 - 15 minutes of a warm up activity followed by 35 - 40 minutes of power point presentation with plenty of time for questions, comments, and discussion.

*This class teaches *EVOLUTION*. You can contact me directly if you want to join this class but don't want to attend the evolution classes.