30th Birthday Essay Series
Our birthday essays are meant to share the value of Life Lab's programs and mission. 2009 is our 30th birthday year.
Do you have an inspiring story to tell about Life Lab? Share your story at our Life Lab History Time Line.
Essay 1: The Garden, A Master Teacher
The Garden, A Master Teacher
By Kirsten Berhan - A mother of Life Lab Campers who is passionate about the power of garden-based learning as an educational tool.
Kirsten writes:
One of the complex questions I have been living is the question of education. This is a question that has grown within me from my own education in the public school system and now ripens as I have the stewardship of nurturing my own four daughters. For their sakes, I have waded through the war-zone of educational philosophies with the cross-fire so thick that I could not clearly see who was wrong or who was right. At last I came upon a place of peace, where Dewey, Montessori, Steiner, Mason, Rousseau and Froebel all seem to call a truce. I have found a place where public schoolers, home-schoolers, and private-schoolers can amicably co-exist. This higher-ground is in the garden. It seems that educational experts through the ages and across the globe have all cited the garden as a master teacher.....Successful School Garden programs come in as varied shapes and sizes as the things that grow in them, however there are certain components that seem common to each. The Life Lab Science Program maintains the following helpful definition:
A Life Lab Garden is a place where students...
- Are inspired to ask questions and seek answers through their own research and observations.
- Observe the workings of a diverse ecosystem first-hand.
- Recognize their ability to create a place of beauty and ecological significance.
- Discover the connections between themselves, their peers, and the natural world.
- Contribute to the production of healthy food, from seed to table.
- Apply concepts learned in multiple academic areas.
Read more....
Garden-Based Learning Research Briefs
Prefaced by Life Lab Education Director Whitney Cohen, these research briefs demonstrate the impact of garden-based learning on student's wellbeing:
The Impact of Garden-Based Learning on Student Health and Nutrition
The Impact of Garden-Based Learning on Academic Achievement
Read more....
