Lakehead University’s Farm Lab has been given a chance to grow thanks to a three-year, $79,800 PromoScience grant, which will bolster its on-campus micro-farm and educational programming with local schools.
Whether conducting field trips to the university’s Farm Lab or elsewhere, helping local schools combine gardening with education, or providing professional development to local teachers, the Farm Lab team said connecting learning with gardening and the outdoors can have a wide variety of benefits.
“Kids love gardening. They love being outside,” said team member Jacob Kearey-Moreland. “They love getting out of the classroom, and if they can form positive connections with learning, then they can take that with them in whatever they do.”
The Farm Lab team helps support K-12 education in Simcoe County, and the team worked with 10 local schools last year, as well as work with the university’s bachelor of education program on connecting education with gardening.
“Education is a big part of it, for sure — teaching kids about how to garden, where their food comes from,” said Ellen Field. “But we have a big focus on the bachelor of education program here, and teaching teachers how to connect food literacy to elementary education and high school education: can you teach math in a garden, or how do you connect literacy and a salad bar? That kind of stuff.”
Beyond the curriculum, gardens also provide an opportunity for students to get out of the classroom and learn in a hands-on environment, which team members said benefit their educational outcomes and improve mental health.
“The garden is essentially a classroom where students can come to learn, and they can connect with diverse cultures and with biodiversity and with themselves,” said Kearey-Moreland.
Outside of its educational endeavours, produce grown at the Farm Lab is donated to the Lakehead University Student Union Food Pantry and The Sharing Place, and seeds are donated to community seed libraries.
More may be found on the Farm Lab website.
