Category : Garden-Based Learning
Garden Tour Promoters Pack
As part of Life Lab's 40th Anniversary we organized and promoted "Santa Cruz County Open School Gardens Day" This was a one day event where 14 local school gardens opened their gates for community building and garden tours. Our post event assessment noted that about 300 [...]
Santa Cruz County Open School Gardens Day
Santa Cruz County Open School Gardens Day Saturday, October 12th,2019 Free Admission Connect with the vibrant school garden culture of Santa Cruz County! The greater community is invited to visit area school gardens for [...]
Engaging University Students in Local School Gardens
Engaging University Students in Local School Gardens: A Toolkit for School Districts, School Garden Support Organizations and Universities Created by UC Davis Student Farm, Life Lab, and UC Berkeley This guidebook summarizes three different models of U [...]
Webinar and Curriculum – The Soil Story: Unearthing Connections Between Climate Change, the Food We Eat, and Human Health
NOAA Planet Stewards Education Project webinar The Soil Story: Unearthing Connections Between Climate Change, the Food We Eat, and Human Health presented by Jessica Handy, Education Coordinator for Kiss the Ground, and Whitney Cohen, Education Director of [...]
Outdoor Classroom Management Webinar
View Life Lab and EdWeb's Growing School Garden Community webinar on Outdoor Classroom Management View the archived webinar here! View all our webinars. View Life Lab's resources on effective outdoor classroom management Presenters: Whitney Cohen, Education Dir [...]
Steps to a Successful Garden Workday
-by John Fisher Life Lab's Director of Partnerships and Programs This post is part of our Sustaining School Gardens Series Over the years I have led many garden workdays at the Life Lab Garden Classroom and school gardens across California. In addition to the obv [...]
We’re Changing the Nature of Education
View Life Lab's Education Director Whitney Cohen's inspiring description of how Life Lab is changing the nature of education to the audience of our 2014 Benefit Brunch. Please consider supporting Life Lab's work. Make a donation today. For th [...]
One Garden, Many Schools: Multi-Use School Garden Models
Life Lab sprouted at Green Acres Elementary School in 1979. Most of the gardens that we have worked with over the past 35 years are located on, and serve one school site. While visiting school gardens in Denmark and Norway I was impressed by their model of one large gar [...]
Regional Support Models for Sustaining School Gardens Webinar
Join Life Lab and EdWeb's Growing School Garden Community for a webinar on Regional Support Models for Sustaining School Gardens. Tuesday, March 4, 2014 - 4pm / Eastern Time View the archived version here. Read our article on One Garden, Many Schools. View all ou [...]
2014 California School Garden Survey
May 28, 2014 Press Release - Survey Says... School Gardens Thriving in California – Results from the California School Garden Survey. Life Lab, in collaboration with the California School Garden Network, conducted the California School Garden Survey to gain i [...]
Common Core in the Garden
Here at Life Lab, we have cross-mapped every lesson in The Growing Classroom with the new Common Core Math and Language Arts standards and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) being rolled out in schools across the country! We've also cross-mapped every lesso [...]
The Danes Are Here
We have been having a great time showing visitors from Denmark some of the best farm to school and school garden programs in the region. The Danish study tour group, organized by Life Lab, is composed of eighteen government ministers, university faculty and graduate stu [...]
EdWeb’s Growing School Gardens Online Community and Webinars
Life Lab is a proud partner of EdWeb's online community and a contributor to their school garden webinars. Join the community and online forum at Ed Web View archives of webinars by Life Lab Inquiry in the Garden: Facilitating Student-Led Investigatio [...]
Fall 2013 Newsletter
View our September 2013 Newsletter View newsletter archives Program Updates Meet Faith - Support our Work Summer Accomplishments Announcing the National School Garden Network The Top Ten of Farm- and Garden-Based Education Garden Tips and Educator Resources [...]
Turning Teachers into Gardeners in Washington D.C.
Life Lab has been delighted to work with a very forward-thinking organization in the nation's capital, DC Greens, to train garden coordinators through their Growing Garden Teachers program. DC Greens' innovative approach to regional school garden support was recentl [...]
School Garden Design Webinar
Life Lab's John Fisher led a photo filled webinar on School Garden Design as part of EdWeb's Growing School Gardens Community. Design Ideas for a Fun, Successful Instructional School Garden Webinar shares school garden design elements from school garden across the n [...]
Google Hangout: Training Garden-Based Educators
Life Lab participated in an Edible Schoolyard Google Hangout on the topic of training garden-based educators. We were one of five programs to share different training models and strategies for creating and sustaining school garden programs. Featured Participants and [...]
December 2012 Life Lab Newsletter
You don't want to miss our December 2012 Newsletter. In This Issue Garden Tips and Educator Resources Planting Fruits Trees and Vines in School Gardens Sustaining School Gardens - Funding Garden Coordinators Book Review: Our School Garden! Recipe: H [...]
Sustaining School Gardens – Funding Garden Coordinators
Model Policies and Organizations from Across the Country Written by Whitney Cohen. Life Lab Education Director School gardens are fantastic! (To be convinced, view The Garden, A Master Teacher) But that's not what this article's about, so let me start over. School g [...]
Summer 2012 Newsletter
You don't want to miss our Summer 2012 Newsletter. In This Issue Garden Tips and Educator Resources Seed Saving Resources and Video Growing Questions - Inquiry in the Garden Teaching at a Farmer's Market Recipes: Zucchini Baba Ganoush and More Disc [...]
Spring 2012 Newsletter
View Newsletter View Archives Garden Tips and Recipe Make a Human Sundial Edible Crop Planning Recipe - Kale Salad Program Updates The Book of Garden Projects for Kids Update on the California School Garden Training Progra [...]
2012 Winter Newsletter
You don't want to miss our Winter 2012 Newsletter. In This Issue Garden Tips and Lessons Lesson - Six Seed Trail Mix Making Garden Signs - Tips and Photos Lesson Packet - Feeling Fine With Fresh Foods Recipe - Winter Squash Teacakes Program Updates 2011 Pr [...]
Introducing the California School Garden Training Program
Life Lab, along with organizational partners from the UC Davis Childrens' Garden Program and the Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego, will train 1,500 educators, volunteers, parents and school garden support professionals throughout the state of Californ [...]
Asphalt to Ecosystems – Greening Your Schoolyard
Sharon Danks, author of Asphalt to Ecosystems - Design Ideas for Schoolyard Transformations, shares a vision of creating outdoor learning spaces as places of beauty and inspiration for natural interactions. From her travels around the world documenting stellar example [...]
2011 ~ City of Santa Cruz Declares May 1, 20ll “Garden Classroom Day”
Santa Cruz City Council Member David Terrazas surprised us all at our May Day Benefit Brunch by declaring the day Garden Classroom Day in the City of Santa Cruz. The resolution was officially proclaimed at the May 10 city council meeting. View the Mayor's Proclamation [...]
Cookin’ With Kids
There are lots of activities that can be really beneficial to your children such as getting a tennis coach for beginners, but research on nutrition education and cooking activities with kids consistently point to positive and lasting affects on their perception of f [...]
2010 – 2011 California School Garden Survey
The 2013--14 California School Garden Survey is now open. Life Lab, in collaboration with the California School Garden Network, conducted a 2011 survey of California School Gardens. The information gathered from this survey will help those that are creating and s [...]
English Language Development Bears Fruit in School Gardens
Life Lab's Language Acquisition and Science Education in Rural Schools (LASERS) program showed the positive links between language development and hands-on science using the Life Lab Science curriculum. This theme was recently revisited by the National Gardening As [...]
Chicken Coop Design
Many folks have asked us for our chicken coop design. Here it is as a four page PDF(1.4mb). This coop is: easy to clean with its side access door crafty with its viewing windows and hinged roof option secure with a nest box and entrance that can be easily [...]
Full Circle Farm – “A school district’s Farm”
Full Circle Farm is an 11-acre organic, educational farm that puts fresh food in Santa Clara Unified School District cafeterias while helping local youth experience success while they develop job and life skills through the growing, harvesting and marketing of fr [...]
Citysprouts an Effective School Gardening Program!
Citysprouts helps a Cambridge, MA school district create learning gardens in 12 schoolyards, and supports teachers' use of the gardens as a direct extension of their classroom teaching. During the 2008-2009 school year they documented 73% of classroom teachers using [...]
The Garden, A Master Teacher – An Essay
In our responses to the editor of The Atlantic we ask that they publish The Garden, A Master Teacher written by a Life Lab Camp parent Kristen Berhan. Kristen writes: One of the complex questions I have been living is the question of education. This is a ques [...]
Creating and Sustaining Your School Garden
The Creating and Sustaining Your School Garden (CSYSG) Video Series is a part of the CSYSG Training Model. This workshop has been given to over a thousand educators in California and it includes the California School Garden Network's book Gardens for Learning, participa [...]
Worm Composting
Everyone should learn to compost with worms. They are natures way of recycling so they can be greatly beneficial to the environment. It can be good for teaching kids how to make less waste and how giving back to the envirnment can be a good thing. By showing them wo [...]
The Garden, A Master Teacher
Printable version with references (PDF) Along with our rebuttals to Cultivating Failure we submitted this essay for publication in The Atlantic. Preface When I was a child and the world seemed grim I had a place that I would go to and find myself again. [...]
School Garden History
The VictoryGrower website supports the notion that gardening is an excellent way to increase food security (the amount and quality of food) in America. Gardening enables youth, families and entire communities to improve their access to Good Food.This section of VictoryG [...]
