{"id":17464,"date":"2025-07-15T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phumyhungngaynay.com\/?p=17464"},"modified":"2025-07-15T11:47:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T04:47:14","slug":"where-curiosity-grows-inside-the-makerspace-garden-at-ssis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phumyhungngaynay.com\/en\/news\/where-curiosity-grows-inside-the-makerspace-garden-at-ssis\/","title":{"rendered":"Where curiosity grows: Inside the Makerspace Garden at SSIS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tucked just off Nguyen Duc Canh Street in Phu My Hung, a quiet rooftop garden is playing an important role in how young students experience science. In this outdoor garden space at Saigon South International School (SSIS), elementary students plant, observe, and test ideas – not just to grow herbs or flowers, but to better understand the relationships between living things and the environments they depend on.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe often think of science as something that happens later – in labs or textbooks,\u201d says Elementary School Principal Melanie Sylvester. \u201cBut science starts much earlier. It starts when children get their hands in the soil, ask why something grows, or wonder what would happen if they tried something new. That\u2019s the kind of mindset we\u2019re building at SSIS.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Students deepen their understanding of cause and effect in the Makerspace garden.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That mindset is at the heart of the Grade 1 integrated unit, Understanding Our Environment. As part of this \u201cSuper Unit\u201d – SSIS\u2019s interdisciplinary approach to learning-students explore what organisms need to thrive and how their choices can make an impact. In the garden, they take notes, sketch their plants, and compare changes since their last visit. \u201cOh, my plant has lots of leaves!\u201d notices Ajin, crouched over a planter. Noticing their plant had outgrown the ruler, another student went to get a meter stick. Through these hands-on experiences, subjects like science, math, language, social studies, and the arts come together in meaningful ways, helping students see how their learning connects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Measuring his plant, a students observes how much is plants has grown and will later note this observations in hi journal.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Students record their observations in journals and sketch the changes they see.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Recently, a few students noticed their seedlings weren\u2019t thriving. Instead of giving up, they worked with Mr. Ph\u00fa Hua, the Elementary STEAM Coach, to replant the seedlings into the hydroponic system for a better chance of survival. Even when things don\u2019t go as planned, the learning continues. \u201cIf the students\u2019 plants are struggling, or seedlings aren\u2019t growing properly, it sparks new questions and solutions and that\u2019s where the learning can go,\u201d says Mr. Ph\u00fa, who works closely with teachers to integrate science, technology, engineering, arts, and math – the STEAM subjects – across the curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The students are learning how organisms adapt to their environments and how we can help them thrive.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As students record their observations, teachers prompt them to reflect: \u201cWhat changed since last week? What do you think helped?\u201d These simple moments help students slow down and think like scientists, learning to base conclusions on evidence rather than guesswork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s this kind of integrated, responsive learning that the school is built to support. \u201cBeing run as a not-for-profit means that all tuition fees go directly into student learning,\u201d says Head of School Dr. Catriona Moran. \u201cThat includes investing in the sciences and the arts, where curiosity and passion can grow over time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That commitment is reflected not only in the programs but also in the spaces that support them. This summer, the campus\u2019s former Middle School will reopen as a reimagined Upper Elementary, featuring an entire floor dedicated to STEAM learning – with robotics, a design lab, and an expanded Makerspace. For students who have spent time in the garden, it will offer a natural extension of the curiosity, creativity, and hands-on exploration they\u2019ve already begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These moments – whether the scent of basil, the sight of a caterpillar on a leaf, or the quiet thrill of realizing an idea is taking shape – remind us that science in elementary school isn\u2019t confined to a single subject. It\u2019s a way of seeing, wondering, and engaging with the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as in the garden, nurturing those seeds of curiosity means they are likely to grow into something much bigger over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: SSIS<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tucked just off Nguyen Duc Canh Street in Phu My Hung, a quiet rooftop garden is playing an important role in how young students experience science. In this outdoor garden space at Saigon South International School (SSIS), elementary students plant, observe, and test ideas – not just to grow herbs or flowers, but to better […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/phumyhungngaynay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/phumyhungngaynay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/phumyhungngaynay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phumyhungngaynay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phumyhungngaynay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17464"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/phumyhungngaynay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17465,"href":"https:\/\/phumyhungngaynay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17464\/revisions\/17465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phumyhungngaynay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/phumyhungngaynay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phumyhungngaynay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/phumyhungngaynay.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}