Saco Middle School art teacher Alison Crofton-Macdonald wanted to do something completely different with her students this year. After the pandemic completely changed the way she was able to engage students with art, she was looking for something beyond getting creative with digital art, or other simple materials like paper and pencil that can be found in most homes and are commonly used during remote learning.

Once students were back to school for the year in a hybrid situation, Mrs. Crofton-Macdonald also wanted to get them up, out of their chairs, and outside for her art classes.

“We are all sick of being inside,” said Crofton-Macdonald. “If I’m sick of being inside, then they are really sick of being inside.”

This year with a rearrangement for hybrid scheduling, Unified Arts teachers were linked with teams to prevent cohorts of students mixing. This made it so that Crofton-Macdonald and her colleague, Lindsay Wirsing were on the same team teaching the same students, which allowed them to collaborate on a project.

Crofton-Macdonald and Wirsing decided to create a project that brought together art, science, and social emotional learning for their 6th grade students by redesigning the entrance to the school with a mosaic garden.

Seeing that there was no evidence of students when visitors first enter the building at Saco Middle School, they decided that giving the students an opportunity to change that would be a win all around for the school, the students, and the goals of the educators.

Tying in her own knowledge of the mosaic process, Crofton-Macdonald had each student make a mosaic stepping stone for the entry way. They were all challenged to create an “I am statement” having to do with something they learned about themselves this past year. They each then turned that statement into a design for a mosaic tile that would eventually be placed with the other mosaic tiles of the other students to make a walkway.

The project also had an accompanying science unit, taught by Ms. Wirsing, that aimed to reconstruct the entrance to have a better impact on the environment.

“Students examined the increases in human population per-capita, consumption of natural resources and the impact on Earth’s systems,” said Wirsing. “They study how their usage of water and land impacts the earth. Typically, as human populations and consumption of natural resources increase, so do the negative impacts on the earth unless the activities and technologies are engineered otherwise.”

“So, our project’s goal was to use the land in front of our school to have a better human impact than grass by planting more diverse flowering perennial plants.”

Each project challenged the students (and educators) to work together, and to be constantly thinking about how each of them can have a positive impact on the world around them.

To embark on the project the teachers were able to obtain some grant funding from SACO Steam, in addition to getting plants donated by the PTO, and borrowing tools from Saco school staff. They also had to find a piece of land at the school that needed a re-design. After pitching their idea to local school leaders, they received full support of the plan that would both provide valuable intradisciplinary learning for the students and improved school property for the community.

In addition to the Mosaic Garden designed by the Saco Middle School 6^th graders, Mrs. Crofton-Macdonald also worked with her Gifted and Talented students on an additional section of the entry way that features a pebble mosaic of the Saco Middle School paw prints, to compliment the school mascot.

The project proved to be hard work, but well worth it with many weeks of planning, digging, planting, placing and a whole lot of teamwork. Saco Middle School STEM teacher Sam Blunda even stepped in in the final stages of the project to help cut all the curved stone pieces, finishing the edges to perfection.

In the final stretch of the last days of school, the project was finally finished, providing the building with a beautifully sustainable school entrance that has the most wonderful evidence of students who have and will have a lasting positive human impact on the land and school for many years to come.

Information for this article was provided by Saco Middle School as part of the Maine Schools Sharing Success Campaign. To submit a story or an idea, email it to Rachel at rachel.paling@maine.gov.

Maine FFA Association, representing nearly 400 students grades 7-12 enrolled in courses related to agriculture and natural resources, recently completed a valuable statewide community project addressing issues of homelessness and food insecurity in Maine. Four target areas, associated with nearby FFA chapters, were identified: Bangor (partnering with the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter), Waterville (partnering with the Mid-Maine Homeless Shelter), Cherryfield (partnering with Maine Seacoast Mission Food Pantry), and Presque Isle (partnering with the Aroostook County Action Program, the Sister Mary O’Donnell Homeless Shelter, Dahlgren Skidgel Farm of Hope in Caribou, Perham Food Cupboard and Washburn Food Pantry).

The goals of the project included purchasing materials to support the shelters and food pantry, sorting, packaging and distributing materials as well as learning more about the challenges and resources available to address homelessness and food insecurity. Highlights of the educational component of the project included FFA members at Narraguagus High School learning more about the services and volunteer needs of the food pantry in Cherryfield, the Aroostoock County Action Program (ACAP) preparing a YouTube video on homelessness and hosting a live Zoom panel on homelessness that included a question and answer session with FFA students.

The project was originally planned and funded in 2020, slated for implementation in March, which coincided with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, many priority items, including some food staples and cleaning products were no longer available. Once items returned to store shelves, completion of the project became possible this spring, with items purchased, donated, sorted, packed and delivered to appreciative recipients. Project work was overseen by local FFA chapter advisors and students. As a result of the project, FFA student members came to a better understanding of social issues in their communities and outreach organizations gained many much-needed food, paper products, cleaning supplies and other staples for their facilities as well as clothing, toiletries, linens and other essentials to distribute directly to their clients.

We would like to thank the primary sponsor of this project, the National FFA Organization’s “State Day of Service” with their $8,000 contribution. We would also like to thank Wal-Mart Community Grants for their $3,000 in support with $2,000 coming from Wal-Mart Supercenter in Presque Isle and $1,000 coming from Wal-Mart Supercenter in Waterville. We would like to thank Willie Sawyer Grenier of Maine Agriculture in the Classroom for handling all shelter purchases in the Waterville area and for delivering items with her son, Jared.  Maine FFA Chapters of Ashland, Bangor, Caribou, Harrington, Mars Hill, Presque Isle and Washburn were particularly involved in the project and are all to be commended. There were also several additional local businesses and individuals in each community that contributed to this very rewarding project: thank you to all of them as well!

Washburn FFA students with donated food collection

Presque Isle Regional Career & Technical Center students oversee homeless shelter delivery

FFA Advisors and students at Narraguagus High School

Mars Hill FFA student officer crew

Willie and Jared Grenier of Maine Agriculture in the Classroom deliver items to the Waterville Homeless Shelter

Caribou Technical Center FFA students ready to deliver

United Technologies Region 4 Bangor Horticulture FFA students sorting homeless shelter items

Ashland FFA students assemble homeless client backpacks

For more information on starting an FFA chapter in your community, please contact: Doug Robertson, State FFA Advisor, Maine Department of Education, doug.robertson@maine.gov, 207-62406744.