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Instructional School Gardens: Opportunities For And Barriers To Scaling, Patricia Sprague

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When children are engaged in school gardens, they aren’t just digging in the dirt. School gardens have been shown to help improve student health by impacting food preferences and physical activity; to enhance learning in many subject areas; to encourage critical thinking skills by utilizing inquiry-based learning; and to engender a positive association with nature. Children from disadvantaged environments disproportionately may miss out on each of these important experiences. School gardens can serve as venues to enhance social justice by helping marginalized students access these advantageous experiences they otherwise might not have. Given the evidence that school gardens improve the …