Garden Based Education » Featured

Plant It, Grow It, Eat It: Garden-Enhanced Nutrition Education – 9/17/2010

heide — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 06:40:49 +0000

Make the connection from seed to table in this fun and delicious one-day workshop at Life Lab’s amazing Garden Classroom in Santa Cruz, CA. Explore ways to teach nutrition through gardening, harvesting and meal preparation in Life Lab’s Garden Kitchen. You’ll learn effective ways to encourage kids grades 2-8 to eat more fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy lifestyle. Participants will sample the bounty of the farm and harvest to prepare nutritious snacks. You’ll receive an activity booklet with gardening and nutrition lessons, recipes, and garden kitchen design resources. $150. 1 unit of graduate education credit available. Registration deadline: 9/8/10. For more information or to register, visit www.lifelab.org or call (831)459-2001.

Gardens are powerful educational tools

heide — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 02:06:15 +0000

Gardens are powerful educational tools, providing opportunities for children to experience the natural world as they develop strong academic skills and positive attitudes toward fresh fruits and vegetables, and learn important sociological skills that enhance the quality of their lives. Says one teacher from the Arnold Schwarzenegger Charter Elementary School in California, “Children demonstrated a better understanding of concepts and applied them in more sophisticated ways after having instruction in the garden.” The Sanders amendment funding the program was unanimously approved by the Senate, and it will now go through the conference committee process with the House of Representatives. I encourage you to contact your representatives in Washington to urge them to keep the funding for the program in the final Agriculture Appropriations bill. Please click here to send a letter in support of the funding. As you contact Congress about the bill, I recommend focusing on members of the conference committee, who are listed below. These are the members who will have the most sway over whether the funding is ultimately kept in the bill, and we anticipate that they will make their decision by the end of the September 2009. Thank you again for all of your help!

The National Gardening Association

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONACT:

Office of Senator Bernard Sanders

332 Senate Dirksen Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20510

(202) 224-5141

The Tactile/ Kinesthetic Learning Style

heide — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:07:37 +0000

You learn best when physically engaged in a “hands on” activity. In the classroom, you benefit from a lab setting where you can man ipulate materials to learn new information. You learn best when you can be physically active in the learning environment. You benefit from instructors who encourage in-class demonstrations, “hands on” student learning experiences, and field work outside t he classroom.

Strategies for the Tactile/ Kinesthetic Learner:
To help you stay focused on class lecture, sit near the front of the room and take notes throughout the class period. Don’t worry about correct spelling or writing in complete sentences. Jot down key words and draw pictures or make charts to help you reme mber the information you are hearing.

When studying, walk back and forth with textbook, notes, or flashcards in hand and read the information out loud.

Think of ways to make your learning tangible, i.e. something you can put your hands on. For example, make a model that illustrates a key concept. Spend extra time in a lab setting to learn an important procedure. Spend time in the field (e.g. a museum, hi storical site, or job site) to gain first-hand experience of your subject matter.

To learn a sequence of steps, make 3′x 5′ flashcards for each step. Arrange the cards on a table top to represent the correct sequence. Put words, symbols, or pictures on your flashcards — anything that helps you remember the information. Use highlighter pens in contrasting colors to emphasize important points. Limit the amount of information per card to aid recall. Practice putting the cards in order until the sequence becomes automatic.

When reviewing new information, copy key points onto a chalkboard, easel board, or other large writing surface.

Make use of the computer to reinforce learning through the sense of touch. Using word processing software, copy essential information from your notes and textbook. Use graphics, tables, and spreadsheets to further organize material that must be learned.

Listen to audio tapes on a Walkman tape player while exercising. Make your own tapes containing important course information.

Ready, Set, Grow: School garden initiatives boost students’ health

heide — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:49:24 +0000

by Julia Hawesand Maya Linson

Local leaders have quietly been examining the use of school gardens to help nuture the minds and bodies of Chicago children.

The new initiative, spearheaded by Chicago Public Schools and Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Office, aims to place working gardens in all city public schools by 2018.

Over half of all public schools in the city – more than 300 total – already have gardens, according to Suzanne Carlson, the environmental program manager for Chicago Public Schools. The 10-year working plan, outlined by the Growing School Gardens Collaborative, would expand that number to almost 500 outdoor learning landscapes, she said.

Andrea Faber Taylor, a post-doctoral scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, worked with Kuo on studies examining the benefits of physical environments on human psychology, particularly in children.

Faber Taylor looked at Chicago public housing and found there were measurable differences between residents living in communities with greenery and in those without.

In particular, girls living in public housing with a “green view” had better concentration, improved academic performance and were more likely to seek long-term success instead of instant gratification, according to Faber Taylor.

When children had immediate access to green space, they were more likely to engage in creative play, which research suggests is “developmentally important activity,” Faber Taylor said.

Kuo is currently examining how school green space can improve children’s learning and academic achievement, in light of the general fatigue that accompanies the school day, Faber Taylor said.

“(Growing School Gardens) should – in theory – be supportive of their capacity to concentrate, if they have access to (nature) in their school,” Faber Taylor said. “It should potentially be restorative. When we use our directive attention, it fatigues the brain.”

Our Mission

heide — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:39:52 +0000

Recognizing that all children have individual learning styles, Garden Based Education offers educators and parents hands-on tools to engage and inspire students