Christine McMullen

Period# 6

4-23-17

English D.E

Research Analysis Essay

Gardens can foster a great sense of community through parent to parent connections,

teacher to student or student to student. Schools and a community may decide to build a

community or school garden. This is a tremendous learning tool for all involved as well as

providing a source of nutritious fruits and vegetables (Benefits of Growing Your Own Fruits

and Vegetables). By creating an environment that allows students of all ages the ability to make

an impact on their community, it will help them grow as people and broaden their horizons on

what they can do when they put their minds to it. More often than not many people throughout

their adolescence and some through adulthood lack social skills, have a hard time excelling in

school due to anxiety, and lack and interest in being part of the community. By creating a garden

available to students in their everyday environment, it will provide them with a new atmosphere

where they can grow while being a part of the student community. While doing so they will be

able to build relationships and will create a peaceful place where they can release all the anxiety

they gain from everyday school life. What Im proposing in order to make this a reality is our

school and schools around us start a public student garden or court yard, where high school

students can come, hang out with one another, and do their part to make the space bright and

beautiful. This improvement project will change the student atmosphere by giving students the

chance to have a place away from the books, rules, and administrators, that will give students the
chance to release anxiety and just make time for their peers. This project though can only take

root though if it is entirely done by the students and they are completely in control.

These types of environments Im trying to create are essential to adolescents

development and can have either great impacts and forever positively influence their growth or

without them students will have to struggle to find their place in the community as well as work

through their social skills. Most importantly the reason why this improvement project is so

important and why schools should make the effort to make it a reality is it will allow students to

experience new interests and discover new information about the world around them. In fact,

these projects will also impact students learning in the classrooms in a positive manner, as

gardening offers hands-on, experimental learning opportunities in a wide array of disciplines,

including the natural and social sciences, math, language arts and nutrition. The educational

benefits of school gardens are clear (Benefits of a School Garden). As well as teaching students

from a young age the importance of healthy diets and new and interesting ways of growing

nutritious fruits and vegetables. Each of which will provide them with the information they need

to impact their own lives and individual communities. Garden activities have been shown to

improve childrens attitudes to the natural environment, especially with organic approaches

which generate practical understanding of the environment and its ecosystems (A New Deal for

School Gardens). This project has the power and effectiveness to show how small actions and the

effort to be a part of this project can influence students attitudes, values, and sense of

community.

These projects though arent just some idea that cant be provided with evidence that they

will work in the real world. Schools not only in this country, but in others have made the effort to

put this plan into action and have been able to reap the benefits of it. People who have put these
projects into action have learned that this, educational instrument is targeting not only children,

but also their families, the community, and the school itself (A New Deal for School Gardens).

It allows students to impact their individual lives as well as those they surround themselves with

in a positive way. These efforts though dont just create a change in the physical sense for

students but also teach the students focusing skills in social atmospheres, it allows the students

to learn focus and patience. Cooperation. teamwork and social skills. In addition, the learn how

they can be independent and self-reliant, so that they gain self-confidence and a sense of

capableness along with new skills and knowledge in food growing (School Gardens). Adding

these gardens to all the schools grounds would supply the students of each of the schools a

beneficial means of freedom, that is also a wonderful way to use the schoolyard as a classroom

and reconnect students to the natural world.

Finally, this community improvement project plays a major role in being the change with

the school walls without forcing the idea on the students. The project proposes situations that

will allow students the opportunity to help the school and all who roam its halls. It teaches the

students through ordinary acts the change they can make on their community, such as how to

thrive in their environments, continuously excelling in school, gain a passion for learning,

benefits the physical and mental health of the students, and lastly shapes students character for

their future jobs and careers. The importance of encouraging our children in outdoor work with

living plants is now recognized. It benefits the health, broadens the education, and gives a

valuable training in industry and thrift. The great garden movement is sweeping over all

America, and our present problem is to direct it and make it most profitable to the children in our

schools and homes (School Gardens). By completing each of these tasks the students will create

a change in the students effort towards school, how well they do in school for the better, and will
widen their ability to build friendships with more of those they surround themselves with. They

are able to do this as, school gardens improve life skills, including working with groups and

self-understanding. School gardens improve social skills and behavior (Benefits of a School

Garden). Students are then given the ability to go outside their comfort zones and do the things

that scare us and that we wouldnt normally do. The impact of this change gives students the

chance they need to make a difference in theirs and others lives and communities. By being

involved in this improvement project schools will be given the option to help people become

more involved in the opportunities available to them and become an active member in their

community.

This improvement community project to implement gardens in every schools main

purpose is to benefit the students regardless of the hard work and sweat that goes into the project.

The project will provide a drastic change in the communities look on the possibilities of student

education and the growth students are able to achieve when relieved of stress, look forward to

learning, and having become an active member in the community. This will not only benefit this

generation of students though, these applications will continue to shape the community and gave

the students the tools they need to succeed at whatever it is they are trying to achieve. It is

because of these changes the project has the opportunity to alter societies view of how a real

community runs and young students role in it. Have a positive impact on student achievement

and behavior (Benefits of a School Garden). Putting gardens into schools, which students are in

charge of making, up keeping, and expanding is a constantly beneficial project that continues to

make a change in countries all over the world.

 Works Cited

Benefits of Growing Your Own Fruits and Vegetables. Extension. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr.

2017.

Muehlhoff, Ellen, and Ezzeddine Boutrif. A New Deal For School Gardens. Google. FAQ,

2010. Web. 10 Apr. 2017.

Benefits of a School Garden. NC Cooperative Extension News. NC State University and NC

A&T State University, 2009. Web. 12 Apr. 2017.

School Gardens. Transformative Education for Sustainability and Greening- GreenHeart

Education. GreenHeart Education. 2017. Web. 12 Apr. 2017.