Edgar R. Garcia, a Special Education Teacher at Brien McMahon High School who serves as Carver’s Lead Program Coordinator, shared photos with us of his after-school students growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

Our students are comparing growth using different soils, lighting, watering, environment, and many insightful procedures. Our students have been excited about this learning opportunity and have been diligent with all the duties involved in growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers.

School gardens can provide an engaging space for limitless discovery and learning opportunities. With youth becoming increasingly disconnected from the natural and cultivated world, it is more important than ever to create gardens as laboratories.

These gardens connect students to plants, soils, ecology, and a multitude of other concepts in a hands-on, experiential learning environment. School gardens help children discover where their food comes from and form the foundation for making healthier food choices. Gardens can nurture life skills in youth, including responsibility, problem-solving, and critical thinking.

Our gardens engage students by providing dynamic environments in which to observe, discover, experiment, nurture, and learn. Living laboratories where lessons are drawn from real-life experiences rather than textbook examples, gardens draw students in as active participants in the learning process.

Science, math, language arts, health, and many other subjects can be introduced through hands-on experiential activities such as these. School gardens can focus on fruit and vegetable production, building wildlife habitats, and creating spaces for pollinators.

School gardens enrich the lives of the youth who explore their spaces.

A garden creates an accessible environment to investigate science, math, reading, writing, and history— bringing each of these subject areas to life.

From understanding fractions to discovering how cotton makes a t-shirt, the garden is a context to experience these ideas hands-on and to contribute significantly to student success.

Collaborating with math, science, and art teachers can bring additional ideas for using gardens as hands-on reinforcement of what they are teaching in those classrooms. Field trips to community gardens and farmers' markets also inspire young minds.