Delicious Paths to Science Learning
The Edible Schoolyard & UC Botanical Garden's 'Botany on Your Plate' lead to delicious investigations & inquiry learning.
By Program Intern Eric Holtzman
The Berkeley Edible Schoolyard Project (http://edibleschoolyard.org/berkeley), a local nonprofit organization, aims to bolster academic learning with hands-on gardening and cooking classes for students. The Edible Schoolyard Berkeley is a one-acre organic farm and kitchen classroom located at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, a public school in North Berkeley. This lush and vibrant garden started out as an abandoned lot sixteen years ago, but was transformed by local teachers, chefs, gardeners, and other community members.
Thanks to the Edible Schoolyard Project, students at MLK middle school are involved with all aspects of the gardening process, including growing, harvesting, and preparing nutritious organic produce. Most importantly, the teachers and garden staff work together to link the experiences the students have in the garden and kitchen to the material students are learning in their science classes. This way, students can learn the science behind how a plant grows and simultaneously see these processes in action. Through this experience students learn a deeper appreciation for their relationship to the natural world. The Edible Schoolyard Project is a great example of an effective way to combine in classroom scientific instruction with real world, hands-on scientific experience.
Botany on Your Plate (http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/education/k12.shtml), an investigative life science unit developed by the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden, was adapted by CRS for classroom use to help students understand the anatomy of plants and the importance of a healthy diet. The UC Botanical Garden has trained BASIS volunteers and provided the content from the Botany on Your Plate unit for future volunteers. Botany on Your Plate lessons encourage students to consider why we need plants and what the world would be like if plants didn’t exist. Also, students get to look at real vegetables and figure out the parts of a plant and how plants use sunlight and water to grow. Finally, everyone gets to eat the fresh produce they just learned about! Through this lesson students learn not just that they should eat their vegetables, but why they should eat their vegetables. Both the Edible Schoolyard Project and CRS’ Botany on Your Plate Lesson are effective because they enable children to learn science through all of their senses.