School Gardens as Sites for Project-Based Science

• In Event: 18.072 - Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: 18.072-8 - Problem-Based and Inquiry Learning in Science

Abstract

This proposal considers the unique affordances of school gardens for project-based science. As a design-based research study, it theorizes the design of garden-based science education projects and interrogates one enactment of this design in a fifth grade classroom over five months. Qualitative analysis of social interaction among students and with their teacher considers how they shape and are shaped by planning, monitoring, and harvesting a garden plot. Findings illuminate some ways in which these interactions foster a project-based approach to garden-based learning; expand a driving question into emergent secondary questions; and ultimately link and separate gardens and gardening with everyday sites and practices in homes and the local community.

Author

• Steven J. Zuiker, Arizona State University