With big leafy bunches of fragrant mint threatening to overshadow the pansies and tomato plants thriving in their learning garden, Kindergarten students at the Western Academy of Beijing knew they needed to take action.

For weeks they'd been carefully cultivating a flower and vegetable garden planted outside their classroom. Yet their very diligence in watering, weeding, pruning and sweeping the garden had resulted in the mint plants outgrowing their tidy bamboo-fenced plot.

Teacher Dylan Meikle asked the students how they should go about solving the problem. If the mint continued growing at such a fast rate, he reminded them, the spearmint and lemon-flavored leaves might overshadow the plots of corn, carrots and lavender growing nearby. The students knew all their plants needed sunlight, after studying living things during the IB PYP Unit of Inquiry "Is it Alive?" and another called "Production."

After a thoughtful discussion, students agreed not only to take care of their plants by harvesting the mint, but to extend their caring to children affected by the earthquake in Sichuan by selling bundles of the herb to raise money for the rebuilding of schools. They sent messages to their teachers, asking them if they'd like to buy a bundle of mint for 10 RMB.

"They formed a whole assembly line of action," said teacher Angela Devencenzi. "After they harvested the mint, they washed, dried, bundled, and tied it off with string. They were so industrious, cooperative and compassionate about their project."

The students planted their learning garden earlier this spring and have daily tended it before school, during break and lunchtimes. The original mint plants, according to an enthusiastic boy named Tony, cost around 10 RMB each. By turning around and selling their over-abundance at 10 RMB a bundle, the students were able to raise an impressive, if not modest, amount of money to contribute to the earthquake relief.

"The caring aspect of the PYP really came into focus through this Unit of Inquiry and the gardening," Dylan said. "Students were using their knowledge of living things to care of the plants and this snowballed into their caring for humans."