Why Teachers Should Start a School Garden with Students

Sustainable activities and practices don’t have to be extreme. Yes, you could hop on a boat and sail across the ocean to collect trash, but you can also do something as simple as using a reusable water bottle or creating a sustainable school garden with your students. A sustainable garden is a simple yet impactful step to nurturing the planet for a secure future, and teachers and schools are now implementing these practices for their students. 

K-12 teachers learn about the importance of sustainable school gardens.

Dr. Brooke Hansen discusses food and gardening sustainability.

On 9/16/19, K-12 teachers from all over Tampa Bay visited the USF Stavros Center for the “Sustainability Superheroes in the Garden” workshop where they learned about food production, gardening with schools and how they can incorporate these important lessons into the classroom. The workshop featured a special guest–Brooke Hansen, Director of Sustainable Tourism with the USF Patel College of Global Sustainability and was hosted by Deborah Kozdras, Sherry Moser and Angel Danger with the USF Stavros Center. 

Hansen is an anthropologist focusing on sustainability and has had years of research and work experience in food, farming, gardening, indigenous studies, service learning and more. Teachers learned about her background in school gardening, its benefits and how they can be a part of this incredible movement.

Why School Gardens?

Using forward thinking to protect and preserve Earth’s resources is what sustainability is all about, and finding entertaining, interactive ways to teach this to students is essential for the future. Having a school garden is an engaging and empowering learning activity for students because they get the opportunity to be involved creatively with the design of the garden and can have responsibility for its maintenance and care.

The lessons they learn from growing a garden include the positive impacts gardens have on the environment, what greenhouse gas emissions do, health and nutrition, where their food comes from and much more. Plus, it’s great to get students outside doing hands-on activities where they can watch their efforts grow–literally!

The workshop provided teachers with the essential tools, knowledge and information about starting a sustainable school garden, and how they can incorporate these lessons in the classroom. Missed the workshop? Click here to get the complete presentation, lessons plans, instructions, videos and other activities to help you and your students create a sustainable world.