Science

Elementary School Garden

Programs Enhance Science
Education for All Learners
James A. Rye, Sarah J. Selmer, Sara Pennington
Laura Vanhom, Sarah Fox, Sara Kane

JOUNCII. FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN

A national movement is under way to

establish elementary school gardens,
which can serve academic, social, environmental remediation, and other purposes while positively impacting students' science achievement (Blair,
2009; Gaylie, 2009). According to
KidsGardening (n.d.), gardening benefits all children in ways that are particularly evident for those with special
needs, such as fostering inquiry and
developing motor skills. With the focus
on access of standards for all students,
children with disabilities should have
full access to the elementary school
curriculum so that they can develop
the interest and ability to pursue the
more challenging courses at the middle
and secondary levels (Burgstahler,
2006). A school garden program or garden-based learning (GBL; Desmond,
Grieshop, & Subramaniam, 2004) is an
instructional approach to science that
can facilitate full access because it is
especially conducive to cross-disciplinary applications (Czerniak, 2007).
GBL can incorporate physical resources
beyond an outdoor school garden, such
as in-classroom vermicomposting, seed
germination stations, and EarthBoxes.
Desmond et al. contend that GBL has
the potential to transform the status
quo for contemporary education from a
"sedentary, sterile experience" (p. 9) to
one that "contribute[s] to academic
skill . . . [and] a child's development in
a social, moral, and practical or life
skills [sense]" (p. 12), such as ecological literacy and a sense of place and
community.
Many studentsparticularly students with disabilitiesmay not reach
the highest levels of learning in a
lecture-based setting. In contrast to

ing an environment. Instead of telling

students about the growth cycle, teachers become coaches by helping students actively explore and manipulate
soil, worms, seeds, and plants. They
can have conversations with students
as they observe that seeds germinate
and seedlings grow. Students can use
their hands to show and point to different plant parts rather than be taught
using one-dimensional techniques
based solely on paper and pencil.
Beyond instruction, the school garden
can also be used by teachers to allow
students a needed "sensory break" to
water and measure plants or simply to
admire what they have achieved by
growing something on their own.
The promise of GBL for all students
prompted a large suburban elementary
school with diverse learners (over 700
students, 19% limited English proficiency, 23% special needs)hereafter
known as "Hill Elementary"to undertake and share the potential impact of
this concept. Based on the experiences
of the educators engaged in this effort,
guidelines are provided in this article
for initiating GBL, integrating it within
the school curriculum, and accommodating the needs of students with disabilities.

GBL and National Science

Education
Recent articles in the elementary science teacher literature tie GBL to the
National Science Education Standards
(NSES; National Research Council,
1996) and report engaging students in
planting, observing, and measuring as
well as investigating soils and the concept of weathering (Ashbrook, 2009;
Piotrowski, Mildenstein, Dungan, &

Instead of telling students about the growth cycle,

teachers hecome coaches by helping students actively
explore and manipulate soil, worms, seeds, and plants.
lecture, GBL provides hands-on, real
life examples and kinesthetic experiences that can enrich the learning of
all students. For example, in GBL students move, touch, create, and are
responsible for developing and nurtur-

Brewer, 2007). GBL activities generally

provide the opportunity to extend
inquiry-based learning over time, and
GBL is sufficiently robust to address all
eight of the NSES for content (see
Table 1). The guiding principle of the

NSESreinforced by A Framework for

K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012)
is that all learners should have access
to and fully participate in science education (McGinnis & Stefanich, 2007;
NRC, 1996). That access is precisely
what GBL provides.

Sciiooi Gardening and

Science Aciiievement
Research supports the positive impact
of GBL for all students, including students with disabilities (Blair, 2009). In
addition, GBL experiences have created
therapeutic learning environments for
students with disabilities (Moore, 1995;
Morgan, 1989). The promise of these
positive outcomes was what prompted
Hill Elementary to use GBL as a core
component of the school's curriculum.
Their GBL environment was built
based on the procedure provided in
this article.
When planning GBL for a school or
classroom, consider using How to Grow
a School Garden by Bucklin-Sporer and
Pringle (2010). This book provides
detailed guidance for planning, implementing, and sustaining GBL. Five
broad guidelines emerged from the
efforts by Hill Elementary that are recommended for use to develop the
infrastructure necessary to provide GBL
for all students.
1. Gamer administrative support. A
solid commitment from the principal and custodial staff is essential.
Consider inviting the principal and
head custodian to planned teacher
professional development for GBL.
Use a theme like the one that was
used at Hill Elementary"Planting
the seeds of learning"to motivate
and inspire.
2. Create a shared vision with interested teachers. GBL will not work if it
is viewed as an addition to an
already full curriculum. Consider
aligning GBL with other initiatives
such as cooperative learning,
inquiry-based instruction, professional learning communities, or lesson study. At Hill Elementary it was
paired with the Elementary GLOBE
curriculum (http://classic.globe.gov

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59

Tabie 1 . Content NSES and Example Concepts/Skills Tbat Can Be

Developed by GBL
Content NSES
Science as Inquiry

Unifying Concepts
& Processes in
Science

Example Concepts and Skills

All science process skills can be developed, such as
observing that a planted seed becomes a seedling,
measuring the growth of a seedling, and predicting how
much a seedling will grow over a given time period.
Form and function can be learned through investigating
the purpose of the different parts of a plant, such as
roots for absorbing water and nutrients from the soil and
for anchoring/supporting the plant.

5. Plan the outdoor garden. If this is a

school wide project, the garden
could be the largest infrastructure
addition to the school. Consider
indoor components like growth stations to germinate seedlings and
worm bins to make compost.
Keep in mind these eight essential
components discussed in BucklinSporer and Pringle (2010) as you plan
your project:
1. Sufficient sunlight.
2. A water source.

Physical Science

Light is absorbed by the leaves of a plant, in turn

enabling the plant to grow and produce food and oxygen.
When light is absorbed by the soil, it warms the soil, and
the soil gives off heat that is called infrared energy.

3. A class gathering area.

4. Accessible pathways to provide
access to the garden.
5. Tool shed (with a padlock!).

Life Science

Plants have basic needs in order to grow and survive.

Plants have life cycles (e.g., seeds from mature vegetables
can start a new life cycle).

6. Cood soil.

Earth & Space

Science

Certain types of clouds in the sky will produce rain for

the garden. The sun may not shine on the entire garden
all day long because the position of the sun in the sky
changes throughout the day.

8. Types of plants.

Science &
Technology

The plants, worms, and insects in our garden are natural,

whereas the plastic bottle to spray milk on our plants is
technology made by humans.

Science in Personal
& Social
Perspectives

Composting of leaves and fruit and vegetable waste is an

example of recycling. Composting enables us to improve
and extend top soil.

History & Nature

of Science

Science is a human endeavor. For example, we study

science to learn the best ways to grow vegetables and
what nutrients are in the vegetables.

Note: NSES = National Science Education Standards; CBL

learning.
/fsl/html/templ.cgi?elemCLOBE).
Pairing CBL with an existing initiative makes it less threatening while
not adding to the workload.
3. Identify and seek funding opportunities. Partner with a local business,
organization, or university. Understanding who potential community
partners or funding sources are
from the beginning can facilitate
school support and focused meetings. At Hill Elementary a Lowe's
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COUNCIL FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN

Garden-based

Toolbox for Education Award helped

fund the project.
4. Develop community support. Involve
the community from the start
everyone from children to grandparents alike loves to see things
grow. Include parents and relatives
of students, local businesses, county
extension agencies, gardening clubs,
educational institutions, and any
and all who are interested. Think
about recruiting someone to care for
the garden over the summer break.

7. Fencing to keep out dogs, deer, and

other "spoilers."

Be conscious of sunlight as locations are considered as well as the size

and number of plant beds that can be
created. At Hill there were two cedar
beds per grade level (never use treated
wood). Beds were typically 4 feet by 8
feet with some more narrow to accommodate the reach of young learners
(see Figure 1). All beds were 18 inches
in height and filled with amended soil
from a local nursery (see http://www
.sunset.com/garden/perfect-raised-bed
-00400000039550 for design 1). Consider adding a chain link fence, a garden shed for tools, and a compost bin.
After space and funding have been
secured, the primary focus should turn
to the development and implementation of the garden curriculum. The following components are suggested to
guide curriculum development for
CBL:
A robust "entry" experience that
includes parents.

Professional development for classroom teachers.

A repository of resources.

Consideration of students' individual differences and needs.

Making space for natural learning.

Entry Event
An example of the entry experience at
Hill Elementary has been provided to
assist others in getting started. Hill's
entry experience began during a family
literacy night in early spring that
included planting seeds, subsequently
to be germinated through indoor fluorescent light grow cart systems (see
GrowLah in box "GBL Resources for
Teachers"). Students had a variety of
choices ranging from cucumbers and
tomatoes to green peppers. A sequence
of instructions was devised that made
it easy for all students to measure the
depth to plant the seeds and handle
especially small seeds. For example,
depth of planting was determined hy
placing four seeds "side by side" at the
end of a straw and marking the straw
at location of the top seed. At this
event, parents also had the opportunity
to volunteer to be caretakers of the garden during summer break. The
response was greater than expected
two to three families signed up for
each week with help continuing
through September.

Figure 1 . Raised Garden Beds Witb TVellises and Summer Helpers at

Hill Elementary School

Professional Development
and Resource Repository
Professional development for teachers
and ample resources to support the
GBL activities are imperative. Teachers
need GBL professional development
not only to ensure their buy-in but to
give them the background knowledge
they need to make this a schoolwide
effort. In addition, consider placing an
extra set of text-based curriculum
materials in the school library, and use
those materials to provide professional
development in "waves" to gradually
incorporate additional teachers into the
GBL thrust.
Planning, Implementation, and
Assessment
Once teachers are ready, empower
them to plan, launch, and implement
GBL. At Hill, a spring field day is typically planned for students to transplant
to their raised beds the seedlings that
they began weeks earlier at the opening family night. Teachers can work
with students to select and grow an
assortment of plants that are a good fit

with curriculum standards, interests,

and/or cultural preferences. When
school is out for the summer, consider
allowing families to continue to harvest
food in exchange for their labor in
tending the garden. In the fall of the
next school year be ready to re-engage
students, family, and community in the

GBL project (see box "The First Day

Back!").
At Hill, a fall GBL needs assessment
helped determine how best to support
teachers and guide GBL direction.
Consider an advisory board of teachers, parents, students, and community
members to provide feedback each
year to support GBL improvement.

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61

Garden-Based Learning Resources for Teachers

County Extension Offices and affiliated Master Gardener Organizations'
lent resources. Also, consult horticulture and science education departments at
universities.
Gardening for Kids with Disabilities by D. Fundernbusch and W. Downs.
University of Missouri Extension.
http://agrability.missouri.edu/gardenweb/Children.html
Gardening Projects for the Classroom and Special Learning Programs (2003) by
H. Bruce & T. J. Folks. Petals and Pages.
Gardening with Children (2007) by M. Hannemann, P. Hlse, B. Johnson, B.
Kurland, & T. Patterson. Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
GrowLab: A Complete Guide to Gardening in the Classroom, 2nd Edition (2006)
by E. Pranis & J. Hale. National Gardening Association.
How to Grow a School Garden (2010) by A. Bucklin-Sporer & R. Pringle. Titnber
Press.
Junior Master Gardeners, http://jmgkids.us/
KidsGardening.org. A National Gardening Association resource.
http://www.kidsgardening.org/
Math in the Garden (2006) by J. White, K. Barrett, J. Kopp, C. Manoux, K.
Johnson, & Y. McCuUough. National Gardening Association.
The Growing Classroom (2007) by R. Jaffe & G. Appel. National Gardening
Association.
The Worm Guide: A Vermicomposting Guide for Teachers. (2004). CalRecycle.
http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/Education/curriculum/worms
Vertical Gardening (2011) by Derek Fell. Rodale.

Figure 2 . Group ef Students' Journal About Their Experimental

Investigation of Plant Growth

Oai-den Journal
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Date: ^ ^ f e p ^
Temperature: ^ JM
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What 1 did in the garden today:

Hill faculty experienced how GBL

can be used to actively engage all students in the science curriculum
including those with disabilities. Hill's
fourth grade collaborative classroom
provides an example of how to integrate science standards using thematic,
interdisciplinary contexts and GBL.
As part of science instruction, GBL
is especially rich for helping all students advance their understandings of
change over time. The life cycle of a
plant exemplifies change over time:
something that cannot be observed in
a moment, but is easily seen over time
(e.g., germination of a seed). In the
past, teachers have used virtual field
trips to expose students to these concepts. The school garden has provided
a much richer, real-life experience.
Students have ownership of something
that is alive. They are responsible for
providing water, nourishment, and protection for their plants. Instead of pictures, they have the opportunity to
observe the daily growth of the plants
in real time and collect data on this
growth while they represent it and analyze it in their journals (see Figure 2).

Instead of pictures, they

have the opportunity to
observe the daily growth of the
plants in real time and collect
data on this growth while
they represent it and analyze
it in their journals

Joioj Lug. uefrgj Qrvi mPr id 1 u / o j i * ^ Ayscl

\^t

Qtr in c uf^/-fi/y

hC 5 'J^f/l^

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What r saw in the garden today:

62

COUNCIL FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN

Real research is possible for students as they manipulate a single variable to see if it impacts plant growth
over time (see Figure 3). The data collection, sketches, analysis, and refiections transform a unit that was formerly done theoretically in the confines of
a classroom into a real world, handson, cross-curricular exploration.
Teachers document student learning
through formative assessment of student activities as well as the resulting
application of scientific concepts by
students in other contexts. For example, teachers noted that students.

The First Day Bade!

As a kindergarten teacher, I believe it is essential for me to
match my kids' enthusiasm for their first day of school
with lessons that heighten that enthusiasm, not dampen it.
This year, with our inaugural school garden in peak August
form, I knew I had an easy way to do that by utilizing our
outdoor classroom environment. Qn that very first afternoon, we all trooped outside with the assignment to pick
ripe red cherry tomatoes, shiny green peppers, and husked
tomatillos. We added to those some onions that I brought
in from home, and before you knew it, our budding chefs
had made salsa! Tortilla chips were eagerly dipped into
salsa, and kids who had never thought about eating a fresh
tomato were enthusiastically sampling their special recipe.
A few students took samples to the office, where they
made quite an impression on their new principal! Who
knows which child this touched? Was it an English language learner (ELL) student, anxious about not being comfortable with English as her first language, who found a

"common" language as the kids picked the tomatoes?

Maybe it was the student with special needs, not quite fitting in and not quite knowing why, who realized that the
others were having fun and not noticing his disability.
Perhaps it was the student who was away from her mother
for the first time and needed the distracting fun the garden
provided. Besides establishing an atmosphere of excitement, we worked that first day to build community within
our classroom and give a sense of belonging to the students' new elementary school. Qn an academic level,
vocabulary was enriched as they discovered words such as
"ripe," "vines," and "tomatillos." For many students, the
connection of farm to table was developed, as tomatoes
and peppers had only been seen on grocery store shelves.
The tones of curiosity, discovery, and risk taking were
establishedthese are the very foundations of science
learning, and indeed, the foundation of all learning. Above
all, it gave them a first day of school to remember!

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63

Figure 3. Students Monitoring Their Experiment on the impact of Fertilizer on Plant Growth

including those with disabilities, were

applying "interpretation" during data
analysis in mathematics. The teachers
also notedspecific to students with
disabilitiesthat GBL provided a
schema in related writing prompts.
Using inquiry to initiate learning is
a critical part of fourth-grade science.
The garden and classroom worm bins
have proven to be a valuable resource
to spark questions (see box "Worming
Our Way Into Science"). Students
asked, "How do worms have babies?
Do they lay eggs? Do they eat the
babies like the fish?" Students wondered if they would find fat fishing
worms in the outdoor garden or ones
that resembled those in their worm
bins. Without the classroom worm bin
addition, these questions would not
likely have arisen.

Finai Thougiits
GBL is a robust vehicle to increase
access to the elementary school curriculumparticularly sciencefor all
students, particularly students with disabilities. GBL finds considerable sup64

COUNCIL FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN

Worming Our Way into Science

Vermicomposting through worm bins in four of the classrooms provided another
GBL "living laboratory" especially rich for learning life and earth science, and, in
the process, integrating mathematics and reading/language arts. As decomposers, these red worms, Eisenia ftida, change our garbage into soil: Is there a
cooler organism (Carroll, 2009)? In one of the kindergarten classrooms, the
worm bins were a tool for discovery learning. The students knew little about
worms (other than to say, "ewwww") and the useful role they play in nature. ^
The questions, observations, and discoveries fostered that type of thinking and
learning in other areas of the curriculum as well. In a fourth grade class, each
student "took a scoop" and separated the worms from the compost, then counted the worms and summed the counts from all scoops to ascertain how much
the worm population increased over time (see Figure 4). Special needs learners
with sensory issues can simulate the experience using plastic or gummy worms,
or they can take pictures of the students separating worms and create a visual
presentation of the project. Students who are not completing grade level math
can sort worms into piles (cups) of 10 to count by 10s or be asked to sum a
much smaller number. Students also learn the concepts of biodegradable (What
r is and is not suitable for composting?), surface area (Do pieces of apple disapIpear faster than the whole fruit?), food chains (What would our world be like
without decomposers?), and how to carry out an experimental investigation (Do
seeds germinate and grow better when planted in worm bin compost or in soil
from the school grounds?). These questions can drive investigations that include
the outdoor gardens and school grounds to learn what chiefly makes up soil
(clay, sand, and silt along with organic material, air, and water), what soil types
best support plant growth (loamy), and the degree to which different items that
make up our "waste" stream are biodegradable and why.

Figure 4 . Students Completing Worm Counts as Part of

Vermicomposting

port in the NSES and has been shown

to increase science achievement in elementary students. GBL provides an
authentic and cross-disciplinary experience for all learners and can be easily
adapted for students with disabilities.
Because of the experiential, hands-on
nature of GBL, this activity is one key
to potentially unlocking the learning of
students with disabilities.
References
Ashbrook, P. (2009). Planting before winter.
Science and Children, 47(1), 19-20.
Blair, D. (2009). The child in the garden:
An evaluative review of the benefits of
school gardening. The Joumal of
Environmental Education, 40(2), 15-38.
doi:3200/JOEE.40.2.15-32

Gaylie, V. (2009). The leaming garden:

Ecology, teaching and transformation.
New York, NY: Peter Lang.
KidsGardening. (n.d.). Gardening with
children with special needs. KidsGardening. Retrieved from http://www
.kidsgardening.org/article/gardening
-children-special-needs
McGinnis, J., & Stefanich, G. (2007). Special
needs and talents in science learning. In
S. Abell & N. Lederman (Eds.), Handbook of research on science education
(pp. 537-559). New York, NY: Routledge.
Moore, R. C. (1995). Children gardening:
First steps towards a sustainable future.
Children's Environments, 12(2), 222-232.
Morgan, B. (1989). Growing together:
Activities to use in your horticulture and
horticulture therapy programs for children. Pittsburgh, PA: Pittsburgh Givic
Garden Center
National Research Council. (1996). National
science education standards. Washington,
DC: National Academy.
National Research Council. (2012). A framework for K-12 science education: Practices,
cross-cutting concepts, and core ideas.
Washington DC: National Academy.
Retrieved from http://books.nap.
edu/catalog.php?recordjd = 13165
National Standards for Grade 4-Science.
(n.d.). Education.com. Retrieved from
http://www.education.com/reference
/article/Ref_National_Grade_4_Science
/?page = 5
Piotrowski, J., Mildenstein, T., Dungan, K.,
& Brewer, G. (2007). The radish party.
Science and Children, 45(2), 41-46.

Bucklin-Sporer, A. & Pringle, R. (2010). How

to grow a school garden. Portland OR:
Timber Press.
Burgstahler, S. (Ed.). (2006). Making math,
science, and technology instruction accessible to students with disabilities. A
resource for teachers and teacher educators. Seattle WA: University of Washington. Retrieved from http://www.
washington.edu/doit/MathSci/
Carroll, K. (2009). Worms eat school lunch
too? Science and Children, 46(6), 20-23.
Czerniak, C. (2007). Interdisciplinary science teaching. In S. Abell & N. Lederman
(Eds.), Handbook of research on science
education (pp. 537-559). New York, NY:
Routledge.
Desmond, D., Grieshop, J., & Subramaniam,
A. (2004) Revisiting garden based learning in basic education. Paris, France:
international Institute for Educational
Planning. Retrieved from http://www
. fao. org/sd/erp/revisiting.pdf

James A. Rye, Professor; and Sarah J.

Selmer, Assistant Professor, Department of
Curriculum and Instruction, West Virginia
University, Morgantown. Sara Pennington,
National Board Certified Teacher: Laura
Vanhorn, National Board Certified Teacher;
Sarah Fox, Special Education Elementary
Teacher; and Sara Kane, Elementary
Teacher, North Elementary School,
Morgantown, West Virginia.
Address correspondence concerning this article to James A. Rye, Department of
Curriculum and Instruction, West Virginia
University, P.O. Box 6122, Morgantown, WV,
26506-6122 (e-mail: jim.rye@mail.wvu.edu).
The authors express their appreciation to
school principal Natalie Webb, head custodian Sam Stasia, the Morgantown Technical
Education Center, the Monongalia County
Extension Service and affiliated Master
Gardeners, and the Lowe's Charitable and
Educational Foundation for their contributions to this project and article.
TEAGHING Exceptional Children, Vol. 44,
No. 6, pp. 58-65.
Copyright 2012 CEC.

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