Garden Classrooms

Sonoma State University (SSU) has an active commitment to sustainability, in both its infrastructure and academic programs. Instilling a sense of environmental stewardship in students has increasingly taken place in a living lab, Copeland Creek, which crosses campus.

The Garden Classroom (Department of Environmental Studies and Planning), adjacent to the creek, has become a hub for university students across campus, and serves as a hands-on, interdisciplinary outdoor classroom for creek restoration activities, habitat gardening, and food production and preparation.

Tree Media Foundation's / Urban Roots call to action is to put farms in schools. Across the nation, schools cover large areas of land that are often covered in asphalt. This asphalt-covered land offers up a terrific opportunity to turn it into organic, food-producing land while also creating a valuable, outdoor classroom.

The Extended School Program of Murfreesboro City Schools (MCS) is developing a gardening program at 3 schools this sping. The program has 3 funding sources: a grant from Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), Pillsbury, and the Soil Conservation Service. 

When trying to take care of our garden during the school day became too difficult, I decided to see if there was interest in an after-school Garden Club.  Last year, I had forty 4th and 5th graders who came after school to work in our school gardens.  We made cole slaw with our cabbage, sampled various kinds of lettuce dipped in ranch dressing, made wind chimes, coffee filter butterflies, and made a vermicomposting bin that we fed with compostable items students collected after lunch time.  This year, with the help of my husband (a hydroponics store owner), we opened after school garden clu