We will develop a guide for teachers, administrators and school garden  coordinators that enumerates specific ways in which the California  Content  Standards can be taught and/or applied through garden-based  learning. The document developed will identify activities from 6-10  selected curricula and the standards that each supports.  We will  cover grades K-6 in three of the four major subject areas; language  arts, social studies, science, and math. The project will be  accomplished by a steering team who will meet periodically throughout  the year and a general committee of approximately 15 teachers, DANR  work group  members and other garden-based learning professionals who will meet  one time for two days.  Funding is requested for the 2-day work  meeting.

Over the past 10 years in California there has been a renewed interest in using school gardens and outdoor spaces for teaching. Along with this, there has been a proliferation of curricula published for use in school gardens or the outdoor school environment. These are typically designed to give teachers a tool that effectively teaches the general subject areas and the skills that children are expected to master with hands-on activities. There is widespread enthusiasm about garden-based learning among teachers but two recognized barriers to its implementation are 1) teachers are overwhelmed and unfamiliar with the many curricula available in this area and 2) teachers need help in finding and recognizing the ways that garden-based learning can be used to teach and apply the standards. Without these connections school garden programs are neither sustainable nor justifiable.

This project has been classified as high priority by professionals attending the 2001 DANR Garden-based Learning Convocation and by the California Department of Education (CDE) School Gardens Project. CDE has already directed approximately $16,000 towards this project that will support the work of the personnel on the steering team.

This project will facilitate progress in the four HR PPAC issues identified in our project purpose, especially Issue 4, Goal 3, Action 3.1: Research, develop, modify, test and implement agricultural literacy education programs and curricula for youth and targeted groups.

The purpose of this project is to address these barriers by developing a document that enumerates high quality activities from carefully reviewed curricula and links them to the standards that they address. We expect that this document will help educators find ways to use garden-based learning in their day-to-day activities to teach the content that they are required to cover. It will be useful to UCCE Master Gardeners and 4-H staff who frequently serve in garden coordinator positions and/or work with teachers and after-school groups. These are often individuals who have strong background and understanding of plant science and gardening but have not been formally trained in education. We also see it as useful for school administrators as they begin to understand the importance and usefulness of school garden projects. Ultimately the use of the information contained in the document will allow for garden-based learning activities that are closely aligned with teaching standards and thus sustainable garden programs. These, in turn, will help facilitate the achievement of PPAC goals enumerated in the workgroup purpose. There is currently a steering committee that is working on developing guidelines for this document. The steering committee's responsibilities are the following: 1)Determine the format and extent of the document. Below is a sample of the type of information that will be developed. We expect that the same information may be formatted in different ways for different audiences and uses once the comprehensive form of the document has been developed. The document is meant to illustrate several, but not necessarily all, of the ways that garden-based learning activities link to the standards at each grade level. Possible Format: Grade Subject Standard Activity Curriculum 2nd Life Sciences 2.0 Plants and Rear The Growing animals have Butterflies Classroom predictable life cycles 3rd English/ Literary Response Plant a Native Language Arts & Analysis 3.2 Three American Students comprehend Sisters Gardening: basic plots of Garden Stories, classic fairy tales, Project & myths, folk tales, Recipes legends, and fables for from around the world Families 2) Select the 6-10 curricula that will be reviewed and used to develop the document. 3) Identify 15-20 individuals to serve as the general committee. These will be teachers and other professionals who already use garden-based learning and are familiar with some of the available curricula. 4) Plan and facilitate a 2-day meeting of the general committee. 5) Develop the document from input generated at the 2-day meeting. 6) Prepare the document for publication and determine appropriate avenues for distribution. 7) Distribute the document. 8) Evaluate the project as described below. The responsibilities of the general committee are the following: 0) Attend 2-day meeting of the general committee in summer 2001. 1) Provide input on format and extent of the document. 2) Provide input on the 6-10 curricula that will be reviewed. 3) Carefully review the chosen curricula. 4) Evaluate whether all activities within each of the curricula are of good quality and appropriate for general recommendation through inclusion in the document. 5) Link good quality activities with the California State Standards that the each best addresses. 6) Determine whether an activity "teaches" or "applies" a specific standard. 7) Provide input on appropriate avenues of distribution for the document. The steering committee will meet throughout the year to fulfill responsibilities. The general committee will meet once during fall of 2001. The document will be ready for distribution by January of 2002. Evaluation Plan: Short-term evaluation of this project will involve: 1)evaluating the effectiveness of the 2-day general work meeting 2)monitoring and quantifying distribution of the finished document and 3)surveying the initial responses from users about the clarity, content and overall perceived usefulness and of the document. The 2-day general work meeting will be evaluated by participants by evaluation forms at the end of the meeting. These will be reviewed and summarized by the steering committee. The specific methods for monitoring and quantifying the distribution of the document will depend in part upon the distribution methods used. The steering committee will be responsible for describing how the material was distributed and to how many users. A subset of initial users will be surveyed for opinions on the clarity, content and overall perceived usefulness of the document. A summary of these three areas will be included in the final report for the project.