Garden Classrooms

Sonoma State University Garden Classroom

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.

Horace Mann's School Within a Park

Hello,

I am a first grade teacher in Indiana, Pennsylvania.  Our elementary school, Horace Mann, is having a playground design charette workshop for students, parents, teachers, community members, and professionals to re-think and re-design our asphalt playground- this will take place in less than a month.  I have seen your edible schoolyard on many websites, blogs, and videos.  I love your spirit and the whole premis of what you do for your students.  I hope we can incorporate many of your ideas into our new playground. 

Thanks,

Jason Stubbe

Farms in Schools - Putting Real, working farms in schools

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.

Sustainable Nantucket Farm to School Program

Sustainable Nantucket is a non-profit organization that is cultivating a healthy Nantucket by building a better local food system which in turn means a stronger economy for the island. We are actively expanding sustainable agriculture, on-island farm growth, encouraging entrepreneurial cottage industry, and helping to create new networks for our local agri-business community.

FUNN 2 Project: Families Understanding Nature and Nutrition

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. 

What's Growin' On

What's Growin' On? is an organic garden created from an overgrown, unused courtyard.   While originally used by the seventh grade life science classes to grow organic vegetables and offer a haven for pollinators with geometrically designed perennial beds, it has grown into a school wide resource.

Chase Avenue Elementary School Garden Club

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

Ohlone Elementary School Farm

One of the cornerstones of the developmentally based education at Ohlone Elementary School is the Ohlone Farm, which provides a place where children can interact with and learn about nature. A physical embodiment of Ohlone's Core Values, the Farm helps foster an awareness of the environment, nurturing and caring of animals, cooperative learning, social interactions between children of differing grades and respect for living organisms.

Hy-Vee Sprouts - Get Out and Grow

 Our program began last year after a vision of helping kids in our community connect fresh food to good health by growing their own vegetables and then cooking them outside in an outdoor classroom.  Our program partners with the local school district during the summer to provide a consistent enrollment to attend classes each week that incorporate gardening and cooking all in 90 minutes.  Our program received a Statewide Health Improvement Program grant from the state of Minnesota to build the garden itself which is located at the front of our local Hy-Vee supermarket.

SEEDS Arts and Education, Inc.

 SEEDS Arts and Education, Inc. is a non-profit organization, based in Laguna Beach, CA, committed to the advancement of children’s education by funding programs in the arts, sciences, and humanities. SEEDS supports arts and education programs that promote stewardship of the land, such as organic gardening, environmental awareness, and conservation; and programs that foster academic excellence in literacy, numeracy, science and humanities. SEEDS is devoted to enhancing quality of life for children and their respective communities.

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