The Nature Conservancy and its 1000+ scientists have created Nature Lab to help students learn the science behind how nature works for us and how we can help keep it running strong.
This lesson walks students through a process or discovering why their school garden is important to their c community and helps them plan an outreach event like a School Garden Open House.
Many elements are interconnected and function together to create the natural and productive living system that is your garden. Look to the end of this activity guide for additional lesson plans, activity guides, and videos that can help you bring together soil, water, habitat, food, and community to explore your dynamic garden ecosystem.
Subject Area: Gardens, General Science
Grade Levels: Geared toward 6th-8th grade, but can be tailored for all grades
Essential Question: How can we leverage our experiences in our garden to positively impact our community?
Purpose: The purpose of this activity guide is to help students understand how their garden can benefit not just their classroom or their school, but also their entire community.
This guide provides instruction on how to plan and execute a community outreach event in the garden, on data collection to help students evaluate impact beyond their school, and on service-learning ideas to apply knowledge learned from the garden to a community improvement project. Students plan, create and participate in an outreach event to share some of the benefits of their school garden — educational, experiential, and material — with others in the community. They gather data to evaluate the impact of their event, and use this data to develop ideas for increasing community engagement and multiplying the effect of their school garden. Students then plan and execute a campaign to address a need, issue, or problem they have discovered in their community.
Time: This activity guide is part of an extended learning experience that engages students in creating and maintaining a school garden. The following are suggested time allotments for each section of the guide.
