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July 4, 2010

Garden becomes classroom

Vegetables provide both nourishment and curriculum

BY LINDSAY VANHULLE lvanhulle@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — The idea that students learn at a desk in a classroom is hard to break. American children have learned that way for centuries, since the days of one-room schoolhouses.

Some educators today believe the practice is antiquated. What would happen, they wonder, if students left the school building to apply their knowledge in the real world?

Administrators in Traverse City Area Public Schools plan to install a community garden this summer at Traverse Heights Elementary with the hope it will do that.

Ideally, it would generate fresh ingredients for school meals and serve a curriculum that weaves throughout students' subjects.

"It's a complementary relationship," school board member Gary Appel said. "The garden is strengthened by the classroom knowledge."

Creating school gardens goes beyond a traditional field trip. It borders on immersion, with students involved in planting and cultivating.

Rotary Charities of Traverse City awarded the district a one-year grant worth $5,000 to develop its plans. Students attending a Traverse Heights summer camp likely will help with the setup.

Additionally, administrators met with the North Traverse Heights Neighborhood Association to discuss the possibility of providing garden plots for residents.

At least 30 percent of the 450 residences in the neighborhood are rentals, said Larry Gerschbacher, the association's president.

"This would give them the opportunity to have a garden," he said. "Everyone said it's a good idea."

District administrators in May outlined a three-phase plan when applying for the Rotary grant. The first phase, to start this summer, involves preparing the site. A school curriculum would be developed in the fall or winter. And efforts to include neighbors in the project will be ongoing.

Rotary has supported other school gardens, including one at Concord Montessori and Community School near Alba in Antrim County. It is about the length of a football field and roughly 70 feet wide, school Director Steve Overton said.

In TCAPS, vegetables could be sold or used in school meals to add fresh produce to students' diets, said Kristen Misiak, food service director. Organizers haven't decided what to plant, since students are on vacation during much of the growing season.

But the academic benefits are what Appel is most eager to see.

In 1979, he taught science in California when he helped start the Life Lab — a school garden that doubled as an outdoor classroom. He co-authored "The Growing Classroom," a book for teachers using gardens in class.

After three years, Appel said, students' reading and science test scores had increased. He thinks a garden can help students understand ecology, the water cycle and the scientific method while incorporating Michigan's grade-level content standards.

"Learning becomes something very personal when you're part of setting up an experiment in the garden about what's eating your plants and why," he said. "When kids get excited about some part of their schooling, it carries over."

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