Plants in Classrooms

About the project: 

Hi! My name is Anushka Godambe and I am a senior at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas.  Plants in Classrooms is my initiative to teach K-12 students how to care for a plant and develop a love for gardening through placing an indoor plant in every classroom for all schools in the Eanes Independent School District (Eanes ISD). The goal of this project is to foster a love of gardening in K-12 students by teaching them to care for a shared plant through patience, practice, teamwork, and learning as they grow a love for horticulture. The classroom plant is intended to teach patience through the time needed for a plant to successfully grow and practice in attempting different watering techniques using trial and error. It involves teamwork in students working together to ensure the plant thrives by taking turns watering it and having different students take the plant home over holiday breaks. Lastly, the classroom plant encourages learning about plants in how they grow, how to care for them, and the benefits of plants for the environment and classroom morale. 

I began this project in October of 2020 and hand-propagated the plants by school; I asked each school how many classrooms they had and propagated the number of plants accordingly. The schools received their plants 3-6 months apart depending on how much growth my mother plants needed to rejuvenate and the time needed for propagated cuttings to grow. 

As of August 2023, I have completed my Plants in Classrooms mission by supplying 1,000+ plants for the entire Eanes ISD school district which serves around 8,000 students total across 9 schools: 6 elementary, 2 middle, and 1 high school. The 1,000 plants spread across classrooms in the district include traditional classrooms where they are used as classroom plants, administration and counseling offices, cafeterias (placed by the lunch counter), and school libraries.

Each classroom plant includes a care tag with the name of the Pothos variety (either Golden or Marble Queen), watering and sunlight instructions, and my contact info for any questions or concerns. To date, I have actually been emailed a few times by teachers who had questions about watering needs and educators who wanted to express thanks for the plants. 

How it started: 

During quarantine in summer 2020, a neighbor gifted my family a small Thai basil plant. Since we were stuck at home during COVID, I made it my mission to keep it alive and develop a green thumb. Lo and behold, the plant was thriving within a few months! I enjoyed caring for my plant and decided to purchase another from my local nursery. One plant turned into two, two turned into three, and soon my back patio was covered with plants. I had found myself a new hobby! Ironically, I used to have a backyard in my previous house but didn’t care about plants then; now with a townhouse, I was running out of space to place them. I convinced my family to purchase a portable greenhouse to efficiently store my growing plant collection outdoors! 

As school was approaching, I realized that I’d probably give up my hobby since freshman year of high school marked a change in my schedule with harder, more time consuming courses. However, two weeks into school, an idea popped into my head about starting a Gardening/Botany Club so I wouldn’t lose my passion. My proposed idea involved monthly meetings with a "Plant of the Month" where we’d learn about a new plant at each meeting. Additionally, every member would receive their own Plant of the Month to pot together at the meeting and later take home! The goal is for members to have their own plant collection at the end of the year. After much back and forth in my head about whether or not people would join a freshman’s club and if the idea was crazy, I decided to take a chance and post the club on my school’s website. It blew up! I received emails from students in all grades, even upperclassmen, asking to join. It gave me a new sense of confidence and I didn’t look back. That year in 2020, I conducted meetings virtually through Zoom and arranged a “porch pick up” system for members to pick up their plant from my porch the week of and wait until the Zoom club meeting to plant it together. As of 2024, the Gardening/Botany Club has over 70 members! 

Positive feedback from members about how they liked taking care of their plants and watching them grow got me thinking about extended gardening experience beyond my club. I wanted everyone at my school to experience the same excitement of caring for plants which my members and I felt at every meeting. Some projects which emerged from the club include 1) a raised bed provided to our club by a district elementary school to set an example for elementary school gardeners 2) an indoor and outdoor library garden at the high school and 3) Plants in Classrooms. Plants in Classrooms is the largest offshoot of the Gardening/Botany Club as inspired by the idea of having a shared classroom plant to teach students patience, teamwork, and horticulture simultaneously. Although inspired by the club, Plants in Classrooms was an individually conducted initiative to preserve our traditional club meeting structure of a Plant of the Month. However, club members were informed each time a new school received plants for their classrooms and were kept updated throughout the project! 

 About me: 

Other than gardening, I have a strong interest in Art History and History. My Gardening/Botany Club sponsor, Ms. Darrow, actually inspired this pathway since I took my first Art History class with her in freshman year. Her interactive teaching style fostered an enjoyment for the subject and persuaded me to take my second Art History class, Art Historical Methods. By junior year, I enrolled in the Art History Independent Study course where I wrote a thesis which analyzed lost and found works of art from a material lens. That year, I also conducted an Art History-related experiment for my AP Research class where I tested whether having an Art History education positively impacted short term memory rates in high school students. Outside the classroom, I am pursuing an internship at the UMLAUF Sculpture Garden + Museum which is home to hundreds of Charles Umlauf’s bronze sculptures in an outdoor setting. I love my internship as it allows me to combine my interests in Art History and gardening. Every month during the museum’s Family Day, I donate plants for the first 25 visitors which is quite popular with the children! I also participate in the National History Bee every year and have qualified for the International History Olympiad for multiple years. 

Future plans: 

I would like to major in Art History for college towards an academic career. Ms. Darrow introduced me to the field and prior to freshman year I didn’t know what Art History was! I owe her a lot for both Plants in Classrooms and my interest in Art History. I would also like to start a gardening club or community garden at the college I attend. Perhaps Plants in Classrooms could extend to a collegiate level? Who knows! 

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