The St. Philip’s curriculum continues to integrate the mission, goals, and learned academic skills of EcoSPACES into the daily class work of students at every grade level. We also use all of our physical learning environments (Teaching Kitchen, Rooftop Garden, Dining Hall, Electronic HVAC Monitoring System) to support our curriculum through hands on learning opportunities.

For example, the 1st graders in their study of ‘Healthy Food and the Plant Lifecycle’ link class activities and lessons with rooftop gardening experiences to learn about the concepts of plant lifecycles and nutrition. Its objectives are to teach students to identify and recall the basic parts and life cycle stages of plants. While planting, watering, weeding and maintaining their garden plots, students are taught to identify and understand the main food groups and how to make balanced, healthy meals. Other opportunities involve documenting in their garden journals, sketching and understanding plant diagrams and making informal observations.

EcoSPACES IN MIDDLE SCHOOL MATH: 8th grade Math teacher, Scott Newman uses EcoSPACES to help his students understand the mathematics behind solar power and total energy use at the school. The school has a real time computerized system to monitor energy usage. At the end of Mr. Newman’s lesson, the students will be able to:

• Understand the use of solar power to run a school.
• Understand total energy usage at St. Philip’s Academy.
• Utilize such math skills as Estimation and Ratios.

EcoSPACES IN LOWER SCHOOL ART: Cathy Higgins, St. Philip’s Academy's Art Teacher, introduces positive and negative spaces of objects in nature such as trees, plants, and flowers. Students also determine proportions through comparison of natural objects on the rooftop garden.