Gardening Yearround in the Classroom

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Gardening Year-round in the Classroom

• www.utahgardennetwork.org

Debra Spielmaker Utah State University
Extension Agriculture in the Classroom
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School Garden Challenges

• Mandatory testing. When or how can I fit a school
  garden into my curriculum?
• Administration
• Location
• Funding
• Garden knowledge

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I just buy my food at the grocery store

• Gardening has gone from a necessity to a hobby,
  but gardening in the future may
• Serve as an option for more sustainable
  communities
• Improve nutrition and health

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Why Garden?

• Because seeds are miraculous!
• Healthy eating (kids try what they grow)
• Strengthen relationships
• Self-sufficiency, food preservation
• Cooking, leading to better nutrition
• Garden-based learning promotes a sustainable
  future.

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What Research Says

• Children participating in activities from Health
  and Nutrition from the Garden had improved
  knowledge concerning the benefits of eating
  fruits and vegetables, and they demonstrated an
  increase in healthier snack consumption after the
  study (Waliczek Zajicek, 2006).
• Third and fifth graders showed more positive
  attitudes toward fruit and vegetable snacks and
  an improvement in vegetable preference scores
  after completing activities from a nutrition
  gardening curriculum (Lineberger Zajicek,
  2000).
• Garden-enhanced nutrition curriculum improves
  fourth-grade schoolchildren's knowledge of
  nutrition and preferences for some vegetables.
  The results lend support to the inclusion of
  vegetable gardens within the school setting.
  Administrators of future school garden projects
  are encouraged to include a wide variety of
  fruits and vegetables in their garden programs
  (Morris Zidenbert-Cherr, 2002).

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What Research Says

• Nationally, about 20 of elementary schools
  students are overweight. In 2006, 22.5 (58,745)
  of Utahs elementary school age children were
  overweight (Utah Department of Health, 2007).
• A school garden can be a hands-on teaching tool
  affecting students attitudes and behavior
  regarding fruits and vegetables (Lineberger
  Zajicek, 2000).
• Interest in using gardens for educational
  purposes has grown over the past decade (Guy,
  Cromell, Bradley, 1996).
• Results show once weekly use of gardening
  activities and hands-on classroom activities help
  improve science achievement test scores (Smith
  Motsenbocker, 2005).
• Skelly and Bradley (2000) noted that not only do
  gardens need to be installed, but teachers need
  to learn how to incorporate them into their
  lessons.

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What is learned or gained from gardening?

• Life skills
• Planning
• Cycles of life and nature
• Nutrition
• Hard work
• Biology, chemistry, ecology and other sciences
• Communication

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School Gardening Content

• Not just sciencebut the opportunity for
  curriculum integration creating a cognitive
  learning opportunity to improve retention and
  student achievement.

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Getting Started - Indoors

• Start small
• Window boxes or containers, because of their
  small size, can actually turn out to be rather
  luxurious gardens. Recycle clean bleach and milk
  containers. Cut off the tops and use them as
  planters.
• Mobility
• Drainage of a container is the most important
  consideration

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Getting StartedIndoors or Outdoors

• Get some child-sized tools from a local nursery
  or garden center. Try to find tools that look
  genuine so the kids will feel like real
  gardeners.
• Can't afford it? Plastic spoons and shovels work
  well in small boxes.

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What Plants Need to Grow

• Media to anchor plants(soil or soilless media,
  or water)
• Nutrients
• Water
• Light
• Optimum temperature
• CO2 (only an issue for production greenhouses)

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Plant Growth Media

• Indoor Seeds or Cuttings
• Paper towels (seeds)
• Cotton (seeds)
• Rockwool (not recommended)
• Floral foam (cuttings)
• Jiffy-7 pots (seeds or cuttings)
• Seed starting (soilless) media (seeds or
  cuttings)
• Water (cuttings)

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Water

• How much?
• Indoors, less is best
• Provide drainage
• Outdoorswhat type of soil do I have?
• Sand, more water
• Clay, less water
• Loam, ah just right!

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Textural Triangle

• Send your soil samples to soil lab, usually at
  land grant colleges and universities
• Order a soil testing kit of your own and test the
  soil (60)

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Nutrients

• Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, N-P-K
• Fertilizer nutrient functions http//www.lesco.com
  /Controls/fertnutrientfunctions.htm

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Primary Nutrients

•  Nitrogen (N) Key element in plant growth
• Promotes vigorous leaf and stem growth to improve
  the overall quality of the turf
• Essential component of the chlorophyll molecule
  which gives turf its dark green color
• Involved in regulating the uptake of other key
  elements
• Phosphorous (P) Used in the formation and
  transfer of energy within the plant
• Influences early root development and growth
• Encourages plant establishment
•  Potassium (K) Used by the plant in large
  quantities, second only to nitrogen
• Key component in the formation of carbohydrates,
  or food for the plant
• Encourages rooting and wear tolerance
• Enhances drought and cold tolerance
• Key component in cell wall strength and
  resistance to disease

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Nutrient Availability and pH
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Light

• Keep the light close, withinone inch of the top
  growth.
• Best light spectrum one cool and one white light

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Optimum Temperature

• Varies, air and soil
• cool season peas, greens of all kinds
• warm season corn, squash, beans
• tropicalwho are you guys? Florida California?

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Getting Started - Outdoors

• Be willing to put up with a less-than-perfect
  looking garden
• crooked rows and some weeds are okay

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Getting Started - Outdoors

• Leave an area where kids can dig, even after
  planting. This is often their favorite part of
  gardening.
• Look for earthworms together!

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Getting Started - Outdoors

• Make a secret place in the garden for kids.
• Leave a space between the stalks of easy-to-grow
  sunflowers or bean poles so they can crawl inside.

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Getting Started - Outdoors

• Kids like extremes, so plant huge flowers, like
  sunflowers, and small vegetable plants, like
  cherry tomatoes. Plant fragrant flowers or herbs.

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Getting Started - Outdoors

• Teach kids about the importance of soil and how
  to compost.
• Always use untreated seeds.
• A word about pesticides and fertilizers

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Getting Started - Outdoors

• Easy with web resources
• www.kidsgardening.org
• www.jmgkids.us
• www.utahgardennetwork.org
• www.csgn.org

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Local Resources

• Check with your county Extension Office, garden
  centers, public/private gardens to see what is
  offered locally.

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Literature in the Garden

• Books
• Kids Gardening http//www.kidsgardeningstore.com/
  books.html
• Junior Master Gardener Lessons with books
• Plantzilla
• Miss Rumphius
• Brother Eagle Sister Sky
• The Gardener
• Tops Bottoms
• Weslandia
• National Resource Directory www.agclassroom.org/d
  irectory
• Utah Agriculture in the Classroom
  http//extension.usu.edu/aitc/teachers/elementary/
  literature.html

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Calendar of Activities

• Seed or flower dissection
• Conifers, Dicots Monocots
• Making compost, vermiculture
• Sprouting seeds
• Living Necklaces, Gloves, Jewel Cases
• Sprouting sprouts in a jar
• Jiffy-7 pots
• Growing potatoes indoors
• Cuttings
• water, floral foam, vermiculite
• Division
• Transplanting

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Calendar of Activities

• Lots of Nutrition
• Fruit Vegetable Bulletin Board and more

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Garden take-home...

• When we understand the resources and cycles
  involved in food production, we begin to see how
  agriculture affects our quality of life and our
  environment.