courtesy : Life Lab or gardening
Benefits of garden-based learning among children and youth
Landscape designers, teachers, and others consider school and community gardens to be one of the most notable positive trends in the nation today. These environments can foster science literacy and social skills, while enhancing an awareness of the link between plants in the landscape and our, food, clothing, shelter, and well-being.
Gardening projects provide children and youth with the carefree exploration of the natural world that occurs rarely in today’s era of indoor living; it can also give young people the chance to develop a wide range of academic and social skills.
Noted benefits of garden-based learning programs among youth include increased nutrition awareness, environmental awareness, higher learning achievements, and increased life skills.
Increased nutrition awareness
Research indicates that youth who participate in garden-based learning programs increase their consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables, and gain new enthusiasm for fresh, nutritious vegetables they grow. It is the physical act of having the students’ plant their own fruits and vegetables that gives them ownership and gets them more involved in their learning. Students can then learn about the nutritional values of food and multiple ways to prepare their own products in healthy ways to further progress their awareness of health issues. These two examples of physical acts of learning are what motivate healthier eating choices in and outside of the school setting.
Student Health
Garden view of the Meyer Rothschild Hospital, established at 37 Street of the Prophets, Jerusalem, in 1888.
Teachers also regarded the garden to be very effective at enhancing academic performance, physical activity, language arts, and healthy eating habits. Garden-based learning attempts to combat obesity by introducing students to healthy foods and providing opportunities to for outside experiential learning. Gardening intervention in schools may also aid in the improved health of children for the simple reason that students get 20% or more of their daily food intake from school depending on their socioeconomic backgrounds; families with lower income depending on school lunch even more than others.
Students and teachers have also reported that using GBL programs reduce stress. Reducing stress can result in increased mental health and boosted immune system. A boosted immune system means that the human body is stronger and heals more efficiently. This could help patients recovering from all diseases, wounds, illnesses and more. Hospitals and Primary care facilities would be an ideal spot to incorporate garden based learning.
Increased environmental awareness
Research highlights that high school students gain more positive attitudes about environmental issues after participating in a school garden program. Gardening has also been shown to increase scores on environmental attitude surveys of elementary school children.
Environmental attitude surveys generally include statements like the ones shown below and give the opportunity to rank those statements with a score of 1–5 (Strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree) The statements differ in complexity based on the grade level.
- I am worried about animals that are going extinct.
- Trying to protect the environment is my responsibility.
- I would come to school on Saturday to plant flowers.
Environmental awareness and attitudes toward the environment is also seen to improve especially in urban schools where the garden-based learning programs in the schools may be some of the only times these students can connect with the outdoors away from city streets.
Higher Learning Achievements
Studies indicate students that participated in school gardening activities scored significantly higher on science achievement tests compared to students that did not experience any garden-based learning activities. Other research has indicated that weekly use of gardening activities and related classroom activities help improve science achievement test scores. The reasoning behind these improvements is connected to the holistic, integrated, hands-on, project based, cooperative and experiential learning activities that are all aspects of garden based education. In other words, student engagement in class is increased because they are being intrinsically motivated by “real world” experiences in a more informal setting than the classroom. However, it is important to note the extent to which students improve varies because every student learns differently and has preferred learning styles, which work best for them.
