Five Ways to Implement Gardening Education in the Classroom

Gardening education can be integrated into most classroom curriculum and provide students with active, engaging hands-on learning that teaches responsibility, teamwork and respect for nature and others. The garden serves as a natural laboratory and provides a variety of educational opportunities that include:

Students gain knowledge about the structure, function and behavior of plants and ecosystems when they engage in gardening activities. They also learn about the role of soil science, biology and chemistry when they work to prepare, plant or harvest a vegetable garden. In addition, gardening is an excellent way to teach about nutrition, food sources and local economies, while helping students develop practical life skills like weighing, measuring and comparing the cost of different vegetables.

In addition, gardens allow for an exploration of the Scientific Method through constructing and conducting scientific experiments. For example, students can create a weather station to monitor temperature and rainfall and compare the results to the health and growth of their garden. Keeping a garden journal and recording observations can also help students develop writing and communication skills as they record their experiences in the garden. Students can even contribute data to professional scientists through participation in projects such as Journey North, where they provide data on seasonal changes in wildlife migration.

Gardens can also be a valuable resource for teaching math skills by providing an opportunity to practice counting, grouping and classifying objects. Younger students can use a garden to explore shapes; older students can apply their knowledge of number recognition and place value while measuring and planning garden plots, or solving practical computation problems such as how many seeds to plant per row.

Finally, gardens offer a great way to introduce the elements of art and help students understand how the various parts of a plant work together to grow. For example, students can create leaf rubbings and drawings of their favorite plants while exploring how plants absorb nutrients from the soil through their roots. They can experiment with alternative arts projects such as mason bee condos or an aquaponic fish tank to enhance the garden and add a visual component to their research.

Creating a school garden committee is an effective way to help students take ownership of the garden and ensure it continues to grow. Recruit a mix of teachers, administrators, parents and community members to serve on the committee. If the garden is intended to be a source of fresh produce for the school cafeteria, you should try to involve a representative from the school’s food service department as well to build collaboration and increase student involvement. The committee can meet regularly or on an as-needed basis to discuss issues and decisions about the garden.