Teaching Core Ecological Concepts in Educational Garden Settings
File(s)
Date
2015-05Author
Krintz, Megan C.
Publisher
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, College of Natural Resources
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Across the United States, educational gardens are experiencing a
renaissance after initial popularity in the late 1800s and subsequent decline.
Concurrently, an increasing number of curriculum materials link garden-based
learning and science education. However, while ecologists and environmental
education professionals alike emphasize the increasing importance of developing
ecological literacy, no widely-used garden-based curriculum focusing on ecology
exists today, and there is a lack of data describing the widespread teaching of
ecology in traditional garden settings. Therefore, this research aimed to describe
both the extent and methods of teaching core (essential) ecological concepts in a
garden setting, a basic component of ecological literacy. This research used the
six “Core Ecological Concepts” developed by the Center for Ecoliteracy based on
Fritjof Capra’s work in a survey distributed to garden educators across the U.S.
to discover how educators might be teaching each concept. The survey yielded
qualitative descriptive data which showed that the teaching of core ecological
concepts in a garden is happening in different parts of the country at varying
levels of depth or completeness, and with different grade levels, types of
gardens, types of educators, standards covered, curriculum materials, and
terminology. The methods detailed by the respondents for teaching each
ecological concept were formed into categories using open coding, which formed
the basis of a freely distributable garden ecology resource guide.