ABSTRACT
Gulayan sa Paaralan Program or the GPP is an approach implemented by the Department of Education to supplement its School-Based Feeding Program (SBFP) among schools in the Philippines. GPP aims to establish school gardens to sustain supplementary feeding, intensify production of selected varieties of fruits and vegetables in schools to improve child nutrition and to inculcate among the students the values of good health and nutrition and environmental conservation. This study aimed to integrate taxonomy and systematics in the project implementation of GPP in Enrique Zobel Elementary School in Calatagan District, Division of Batangas Province. A mixed method of research was employed to determine how the integration of systematic botany was done to inculcate taxonomic concepts in gardening of indigenous plants in the school. Parents, students and external stakeholders participated in the project. The project assigned scientific names for the native plants grown in the school backyards. Quizzes and activities that integrated the concepts of taxonomy were done to conserve and propagate indigenous plants. The stakeholders shared that while also growing crops and earning income from the project, they also learned the taxonomy in the implementation of the program.
Keywords: taxonomy, systematics, gulayan sa paaralan, indigenous plants