The School Garden opens a door to discovery of the living world. Within the school environment, a garden helps students achieve learning goals and develop key competencies while reconnecting with nature. Students learn focus, discipline, and patience, cooperation, teamwork and social skills, as well as skills that may be proved vital for their professional future. Although the school garden is mainly linked to science in an innovative way, it also offers hands-on, experiential learning opportunities in numerous disciplines, including natural and social sciences, math, language arts (e.g., through garden journaling), visual arts (e.g., through garden design and decoration), and nutrition: students are more likely to try eating vegetables they have grown themselves.
School gardening also offers the opportunity for outdoor exercise, and for the transformation of children’s food attitudes and habits.
But above all, the school garden initiative deepens children’s sense of connection with nature, and inspires environmental stewardship. The students learn about water and energy cycles, the food chain, and the needs of individual species, and thus they learn to care about all the forces that impact that plant’s future, and the long-term human impact on the natural environment. From the water shortage to the over-use of pesticides, students who engage in gardening observe the importance of conservation and intelligent allocation of resources.
Last but not least, the school garden can be the link between the students and their school. Through it, the students start to care more about and respect their school, and they enjoy working in its premises.