Exit Slip: September 14 (Thinking about learning gardens)

Throughout the reading, I was really surprised at how many different groups of people were able to connect and benefit from the UBC Orchard Garden. It felt amazing to link my limited experience in the garden to the experiences of students from many other disciplines, faculty members, global and local visitors, artists, generations, small communities, and professionals. Usually, a classroom experience is shared by students of the past and present, but the beauty of the learning garden was that this "classroom" experience gets to be shared by people from so many walks of life. 

After having worked with the Burns Bog Delta Nature Reserve Summer Day Camps many years ago, I found learning gardens to be a very refreshing amalgamation of the outdoor camps and school classrooms. What I really appreciate about that experience, and the current one in EDUC 450B, is noticing that regardless of the classroom content, students of all ages will adapt to conditions and materials and feel better when spending time outside. 

In regards to my math classrooms, I think I'd like to keep students outside for a lesson at least once a week. Referring back to the Skemp article from EDCP 342A, it could be difficult to engage all types of learners every day in a garden, given the many constraints of the curriculum. But I do believe in the positive impact that experience has, and it would benefit students to spend time grounding themselves, slowing down their thoughts, connecting with lives beyond them, and seeing mathematics in a different light. I'm looking forward to designing flexible lesson plans that can be adapted for outdoors, especially if the weather conditions are particularly inviting! I believe that with enough creativity and dedication, it's possible to create a variety of learning activities for all grades that can be adapted to outdoors. Even if a full lesson is not feasible, there are plenty of warm-up activities or lesson hooks that will be possible. Senior students might even enjoy a relaxing study session in the garden closer to examination periods.

There are plenty of benefits and challenges to learning gardens. The most notable benefits include: increase in interpersonal connection, engagement with nature and other life forms, decrease in unhealthy mental stimuli, practical hands-on learning and access to environments that facilitate learning by play, positive feedback from kinaesthetic and natural learners, stress recovery from presence of green spaces, and so forth! Some challenges may include the weather, difficulty operating learning materials, extra attention to physical accommodations that may be present in the school building but not in the garden (ie. wheelchairs), students unfamiliar with the new environment may express discomfort, distraction may be more prevalent depending on the surroundings of the garden, etc. Every situation is unique and is possible to be adapted to, as long as there is the right type of effort.