The first thing I thought of when reading this article about school gardens is the sense of independence but also collaboration. For the Roots on the Roof program, students who run these gardens probably learn a lot about organization and planning. They can learn skills that help their future if they want to make their own home garden to grow fruits/vegetables. I think it's definitely an important skill to learn now in our age of processed and pre-packaged foods. Despite these conveniences in society, it's still important to not forget our 'roots'.
A way to incorporate a learning garden in math seems a bit tricky, but easy to carry out some science experiments. Some thoughts that came to mind were that maybe we could get students to analyze the growth rate of some plants (ex.linear,exponential,etc?). I could have students figure out the differences between growth rates depending on different factors (soil,sunlight,water). Another thing could be cost-benefit analysis, is the amount of money and time spent growing this vegetable going to make a profit?
I think the most difficult part of learning gardens would be getting sufficient funding from the school. The school would probably not want to spend money on learning gardens because they may perceive it as something that is not useful. Schools may want to spend their limited funding elsewhere where they deem necessary, and the hard part will be convincing them to fund a learning garden.
Great curricular ideas, Hugo! And you’re right about the difficulty of getting sustained funding. Many school learning gardens also apply for grants, sell produce, etc. to make up for funding shortfalls.
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