Cornell Cooperative Extension Community Horticulture

Hands-on Experiences Encourage Future Environmentalists

COLLEGE STATION, TX –- A new generation has come of age since the first celebration of Earth Day in 1970. For this and future generations, environmental awareness is an important and burgeoning point of reference.

Today’s urban children live in environments that offer little chance for direct contact with natural ecosystems, and often have to depend on sources such as television and educators for information about ecology and nature. Many children grow up without the valuable personal experiences in nature that are essential to developing a true understanding of environmental issues.

Educators are being challenged to create learning experiences that mold subsequent generations of environmental stewards: young people who are capable of making knowledgeable and conscientious decisions regarding the environment. But classroom teachers who make environmental education experiences a priority often lack resources, funding, time, and ideas about ways to integrate environmental education into classroom learning. Getting children involved in hands-on activities is critical, and gardening just may be the answer.

Youth gardening programs are becoming popular experiential vehicles to help children get “down to earth” and promote environmental awareness in communities and schools. Previous studies have indicated that children who participate in formal gardening programs have shown improvements in science achievement, nutritional choices, self-esteem, and patience. Recently, researchers studied the effect of gardening programs on the development of students’ environmental consciousness.

O.M. Aguilar, a graduate assistant in the Department of Horticultural Sciences at Texas A&M University and lead author of the study, explained; “The objectives of the study were to examine an interdisciplinary and experiential approach to environmental education by use of a youth gardening program for third through fifth grade students. In addition, this study evaluated the gardening program’s effectiveness on promoting positive environmental attitudes and a high environmental locus of control with children.”

More than 80% of children who participated in the study had been previously involved in gardening, either through school programs or informal experiences at home. Test results indicated that children that had any type of experience with gardening had more positive attitudes toward the environment when compared with students that had not gardened. The study showed that hands-on gardening activities are important to the development of environmentally concerned citizens, and that children’s involvement in informal gardening experiences has as much impact on their environmental outlook as involvement in formal school-based programs.

Results from the study also found that there were gender and ethnicity differences among children, with girls and Caucasians appearing to benefit more from the gardening curriculum. Researchers suggested that future research should focus on the development of gardening curricula that target the needs and interests of boys and minority children.

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The complete study and abstract are available on the ASHS HortTechnology electronic journal web site: http://horttech.ashspublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/18/2/243

AND CHECK out Cornell’s Garden-Based Learning resources here.

Help Cornell researchers find some of our rare native ladybug species.

Click for details.

Looking for some information and games for all ages around invasive species? Check out this website.

And remember we have lots on

Viburnum Leaf beetle

February 2008 Kids Garden News from the national gardening association explores the benefits of gardening with this population, and provides a collection of tips and resources for adapting basic plant-based lessons and activities at: http://www.kidsgardening.com/teachers.asp#les

Here’s fodder for those aiming to secure resources for summer garden-related programs.

The Nellie Mae Education Foundation is happy to share a new resource:

Now that the fall school year is underway, many students are catching up from what is now defined as “summer learning loss.” A report by Dr. Beth M. Miller, released by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, reveals that summer enrichment opportunities have a much more profound impact than previously believed on the academic achievement of young people.

The Learning Season: The Untapped Power of Summer to Advance Student Achievement reports that children experience learning loss over the summer months, and these losses are much greater for children from low-income families than they are for other children.

Among The Learning Season’s findings: The test-score gap between children from low-income and middle-income families is attributable in large part to summer learning loss; Children are actually losing some of their previous learning over the inactive, summer months; Schooling, a universal and accessible institution, of course affects student learning. However, school alone cannot compensate for societal inequities, especially during the weeks and months when they are closed.

There is growing evidence that well-designed, intentional summer programs can minimize summer learning loss; they can also go a long way toward developing a young person’s engagement in learning, leading to long-term increases in school attainment and achievement

To hear a discussion with Dr. Beth Miller about summer learning and the implications of out-of-school time learning on “traditional” education, visit www.edviewpoints.org
For more information, visit: http://www.nmefdn.org/pubs/?a=8b3b8453-f65e-45f4-9149f36353ec9b8d&l=Research%20and%20Reports&rl=~/grantmaking/Initiatives/OutofSchool/research.aspx

Or Contact:
Sharon Davis or Nick Lorenzen
Nellie Mae Education Foundation
Sharon Davis Phone: 781-348-4257
sdavis@nmefdn.org

Nick Lorenzen Phone: 781-348-4239
nlorenzen@nmefdn.org

Are you heading into schools to engage students in gardening programs? Connect with more than their science curriculum with these great books.

The winning titles were selected from the
commutative committee reviews. And the winners are:

A Seed is Sleepy
by Dianna Hutts Aston and illustrated by Sylvia Long (Chronicle Books)

Once Around the Sun
by Bobbi Katz and illustrated by LeUyen Pham (Harcourt)

Josias, Hold the Book
by Jennifer Riesmeyer Elvgren and illustrated by Nicole Tadgell (Boyds
Mills Press)

Please feel free to share with colleagues, teachers and others that are
a part of the youth gardening movement about this year’s winners. More
info is at: www.jmgkids.us/bookawards and a press release regarding the
winners is at: http://ahs.org/press_room/07/070723.htm

This website for youth aims to bridge the gap between science, agriculture and youth.

Some examples of what youth can find there:

Wild sunflowers are like hidden treasures. To find out why our scientists have been exploring off the beaten track for wild sunflowers, see:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/kids/whatsnew.htm

And hunter flies in greenhouses at:
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/kids/insects/story14/page1.htm

Have your youth adult teams bring their gardening project to the new Youth Community Action (YCA) virtual classroom. This is an engaging, innovative and high tech vehicle for youth and adults to work through the community action process.

Use the site to view projects happening across the state! Currently there are only two projects listed but we’re counting on you to increase this number substantially soon! The site is password protected so if you want to use the site to work through a decision-making process for individual / group action, you will need to register.

Web page provides all the information you need to get started. Once registered you can explore the different pages for brainstorming, organizinging, identifying resources, creating time lines and so much more.

http://www.yca.dreamnow.org

Are you looking for ways to share the excitement of school gardening with other teachers and educators? Need to convince your administrators of the benefits of beginning a garden in your school? Although you’re familiar with all the merits, are you looking for research-based justification of why gardening is so important? Use a new powerpoint presentation, posted at our Cornell garden-based learning website, to get everyone on board! Designed as a guided presentation, or a stand alone that can run on its own, this will help you rally others and build enthusiasm.

http://www.hort.cornell.edu/gbl

Find this article highlighting creative procurement policies to shape and reshape sustainable models of food consumption in the…Food Citizen column

Written for the Albany Times Union by Jennifer Wilkins a Food and Society Policy Fellow at Cornell University.