Connecting School Gardens to STEM education opportunities for Bartow County students

Summary

There are many ways we can incorporate health and nutrition education, environmental education, agricultural awareness, and food science into our experiential learning objectives at local schools. We share a common interest in connecting local schools to environmental, agricultural, and food experiences related to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) for enhancing student education.

Situation

The Bartow County Extension office is a proud STEM partner with the Bartow County School System (BCSS) and has worked closely with local schools to assist with their district and state STEM certification process over the last few years. Our long-term vision is to have a school garden at every school in Bartow County. Garden experiences improve healthy eating habits in children with lifelong implications for reducing obesity, reducing poverty, and increasing longevity. Likewise, there are countless STEM connections that a school garden can provide. Beyond the benefit of student learning is our ability as school partners to help teachers facilitate hands-on learning opportunities inside and outside the classroom. Teachers have a lot on their plates juggling their normal classroom responsibilities and struggle finding the time to start a garden or a STEM club for their students. Bartow’s teachers are highly dedicated and motivated by the benefits of STEM based education—however, they cannot do this alone. Local partners can help teachers with finding resource experts, grants, volunteers, invited speakers, and provide training that teachers need. As an example, the majority of our students and teachers are now three generations removed from farming. The learning curve for growing a garden is fairly steep. The Bartow County Extension office has the expertise to mentor and guide teachers as they develop school gardens and related STEM clubs.

Response

Since 2019, the Bartow County Extension office has observed a significant increase in requests for school garden support and STEM related programs at Bartow County schools. Subsequent meetings with local school superintendents in 2020 reinforced the need to hire another staff member to focus on these areas to help meet the needs of the community. A position was funded that had split responsibilities with 50% of the time focused on Agricultural Education and 50% Environmental Education. These responsibilities are complimentary and would be heavily focused on STEM disciplines at local schools. To meet the needs of the school system a Facebook page was developed, an e-newsletter was published, STEM Walks were conducted, and Master Gardener Extension Volunteers provided resources and in-kind support at local schools.

Impact

Bartow County Extension staff and Master Gardener Extension Volunteers have assisted with more than a dozen school gardens and related STEM clubs on numerous occasions at local schools on everything from planting vegetables, attracting pollinators and beneficial insects, to seed starting, soil science, and vermiculture (worm composting). Our office trains, certifies, and manages school garden Master Gardener Extension Volunteers to mentor and guide local schools. Master Gardeners and Extension staff have provided resources and in-kind support as follows: • Donated $4,320 dollars’ worth of plants, soil, and seeds to Bartow County Schools in 2021 and 2022. Master Gardener Extension Volunteers grow and sell plants to offset the costs of these donations to schools. • Master Gardeners reported 1,971 volunteer hours for supporting local schools during the past two academic years with over 2,249 contacts. • We had 25 volunteers travel over 15,389 miles to support local school garden and STEM related programs during the last two academic years. • During the past two years, the estimated in-kind value of Master Gardener volunteer time and mileage to local schools is over $55,000 (based on the Independent Sector 2021 estimated value of each Georgia volunteer hour). • Invited STEM, career day, and garden club presentations by Extension staff totaled 92 teaching hours with over 3,042 contacts during the past two academic years. The Bartow County Extension office provides a quarterly School Garden/STEM e-Newsletter through an email listserv for 393 Bartow County teachers. The Extension office also manages a Facebook Group: “School Gardens in Bartow County” to share all the exciting things happening with our school partnerships: www.facebook.com/groups/bartowschoolgardens. This Facebook Group currently has 135 educators and volunteers that follow our posts. Facebook posts were viewed 3,933 times by group members in the past year. Community partners observe classrooms and provide feedback to schools about STEM instruction and practices during STEM Walks as schools progress through the district and state STEM certification process. County Extension staff and volunteers were invited to attend 42 STEM Walks (147 observation hours) at local schools during the past two academic years. To date, Bartow County has eight elementary schools and four middle schools that are district STEM certified and one middle school that is state STEM certified. On March 28, 2022, Bartow County Extension staff were Invited to speak at the Bartow STEM Innovation Academy for 30 teachers to discuss how our office can support K-12 STEM programs. We were able to share the local resources and expertise that we have available to help teachers develop STEM clubs such as 4-H AgriScience, Junior Master Gardeners, and Environmental Science clubs. Bartow Extension office resources were posted on the BCSS website for teachers to access as needed: https://stembartow.weebly.com/stem-lessons.html.

State Issue

Urban Agriculture

Details

• Year: 2022
• Geographic Scope: County
• County: Bartow
• Location: College Station, Athens
• Program Areas:
  • Agriculture & Natural Resources