The activity ‘My School Garden’ is an effective way to reconnect students with the natural world, help them comprehend the advantages and disadvantages of pesticides, and teach them valuable gardening and agriculture concepts and skills that integrate with several subjects, such as math, science, health and physical education and social studies, history, civics, logic, art, literature, music, and the birds and the bees both literally and figuratively as well as several educational goals, including personal and social responsibility. To reach its goals, students are expected to design a garden and test different methods to grow plants. To care for their garden, the students will be using eco-friendly fertilizers while in a small and specific planting bed the students will be using pesticides. At the same time, the students will be going through the available bibliography to collect information on and fully comprehend the various consequences of using pesticides. Watching the growing phases of vegetables under different cultivation methods, and having obtained the theoretical background on the pesticides’ side-effects, the students will be expected to responsibly prioritize their goals in regards to vegetables. The goal of this inquiry-based learning scenario is to make sure that students fully understand their choices and are thus more responsible whether in buying or in producing their vegetables.
Educational Object Link