Over the past few weeks, I have worked to develop a lesson plan that encourages the use of gardens and outdoor spaces to build community and connection to the local environment for students. Focusing on ecosystems and the relationships we see between them, I found students were able to develop a better sense of self, strong community norms, and a greater understanding of how they affect and fit into the ecosystems around them. Beginning with a lesson on compost, I found students began to think about their food waste, their role in a garden community, and the larger concept about where their food comes from. This lesson begins in the IslandWood dining hall, discussing the differences between the compost, trash, and recycling, the students begin to understand what happens to their food. I often get the comment, "ew it smells stinky," or "it smells like gross coffee grounds." After listening to their initial reactions, I begin to see what prior knowledge they hold about compost. I ask them, "what goes into the compost?" and "why do you think it smells?" Shortly after visiting the dining hall, we move to the garden compost. While this is not the main location that our compost from the dining hall goes to, it is still important for students to see the comparison between the two in order to understand its connection to the garden. When we visit the garden compost, I have them smell it, look at the three separate bins, and compare it to the dining hall. From this students begin using their sense to create some "notices" and "wonderings." Over time they find out the reason the compost smells so funky (macroinvertebrate "farts" of course).
Beginning with this lesson allows me to determine their level of understanding and provides a scaffolding into my main lesson, their garden focused community agreement. While doing this lesson with students I discovered many tweaks that needed to be made, including the need for pair shares, 5 minute sit spots, and a group discussion about what community means to them. In this activity I have the students do a 3-5 minute sit spot anywhere within the garden and think about "who is the garden for?" Thanks to Mó, one of our garden educators showing us this technique during class I was able to tie it in well to my community agreement lesson. After doing sit spots we come back together and discuss what we noticed and wondered. Students often start with the basics like "plants" and "us," but as time passes they begin to think about the communities that have been a part of the space. At that point, I often transition into the discussion of what communities they are a part of and what their definition of community is. This is great for students as they begin to develop how they belong in their community at IslandWood and communities at home. For the actual written agreement, I make the "people" what they students "bring" to the community and the "compost bins" what they "need." Finally, the garden is what they want their community to look like. Having students work through this provides a great foundation for their community throughout the week. To wrap up the activity I like to have the students participate in a stewardship project to show how they relate to the communities that have visited IslandWood and stewarded the garden for them. I love doing this lesson with students because it really creates a level of connection with their peers as well as other communities that have inhabited the same space.