Say Yes! to a Garden in Every School: Making the Case

SCHOOL-COMMUNITY FOOD GARDENS

Making the Case

Ontario Edible Education Network

Feb. 18, 2015

RESEARCH BASE

Most school garden research comes from the

US, and was considered lacking in rigour until

fairly recently. Many studies were not formal

enough.

Recent work has synthesized the body of

research in meta-analysis, confirming many of

the results of smaller studies.

Key research is contained in my paper, Kids

Growing: Implementing School-Community

Gardens in Ontario (Harrison-Vickars, 2014)

SCHOOL FOOD GARDEN EVIDENCE

Research is most compelling on 3 facets:

Increased consumption

of fruits and vegetables

(8+ studies)

Academic

achievement,

particularly

science but also

math, language,

arts & social

studies (15

studies)

Enhanced and

enriched

environmental

education (15

studies)

PATHWAYS TO GARDEN-BASED LEARNING

SCHOOL FOOD GARDEN GOALS

Science achievement, and other academic

subjects

A meta-analysis of

research into science

achievement through

school gardening showed

increased test scores in 9

of 12 reported studies

that measured them.

(Blair 2009)

Williams and Dixon (2013)

synthesized research

conducted between 1990

and 2010 on the impact of

garden-based learning on

academic outcomes, and

found improved science

outcomes in 14/15 studies.

(93%), with math scores

improving in 80% and

language in 72%.

HOW DO TEACHERS USE GARDENS?

Research (Graham et al., 2004) shows the following breakdown:

Science……………………………..90%

Nutrition…………………………….71%

Language Arts…………………….64%

Environmental studies…………60%

Health………………………………..59%

Agricultural Studies………….…57%

Math………………………………….56%

HOW DO TEACHERS USE GARDENS?

A much larger study (Graham & Zidenberg-Cherr, 2005) found:

Enhancement of academic instruction… 72%

Science instruction…………………………….. 65%

Nutrition …………………………………………… 47%

Environmental Studies……………………….. 43%

Language Arts……………………………………. 42%

Math ………………………………………………… 40%

HOW DO TEACHERS USE GARDENS?

My study (Harrison-Vickars, 2014) found that teachers (n=11) rated best garden curriculum links as follows:

Science………………………………100%

Language……………………………..82%

Math ……………………………………73%

Social studies……………………….55%

Cross-curricular ……………………45%

Art ……………………………………… 45%

Environmental education……….36%

Health…………………………………..27%

WHAT ARE THE BARRIERS?

Studies are mixed, but generally:

Lack of time

Lack of curriculum

Summer gap

Lack of garden knowledge

Lack of administrative/policy support

Teaching outdoors presents challenges

Gardens are often installed because of health and

nutrition concerns, but not used by health educators

HOW DO COMMUNITY PARTNERS HELP?

My research (Harrison-Vickars, 2014) found

that:

Schools with a dedicated garden co-ordinator

have longer-lived garden programs

Higher-income schools have longer-lived garden

programs

In a jurisdiction (Washington, DC) with robust,

policy-supported school gardens, there are 17

groups like ours partnering with schools

HOW DO COMMUNITY PARTNERS HELP?

Teachers in my study (n=11) identified the

ratio of adults to children when teaching in

the garden as important (82%)

Summer maintenance was identified as a

barrier by 64% (100% in school without

partner, and 18% in school with partner)

Practical support and garden knowledge

were identified as important by 45%

CONCLUSION

School gardens are mainly championed by

individuals in individual schools, however,

scaling up may create efficiencies eg. one

garden educator for multiple schools

Funding is a key issue, and therefore equity

– schools with higher-income parents may

have longer-lived garden projects