How to Teach STEM Using a School Garden

Ever wondered how to successfully teach STEM lessons in a school garden? Green Our Planet has some real-life examples for you below. Below, you’ll find a lesson filmed in a garden for each grade level with a class of students. Learn how to effectively manage students and engage them with the wonder of the universe by watching these school garden lessons. A few tips:

Set rules for the students for going outside prior to taking a class outdoors and establish that this will be a outdoor classroom experience and not a recess
Take a kit consisting of hand lenses, a common plant identification resource, small containers for holding insects or seeds temporarily and extra pencils with you to the garden
Reinforce the idea that this garden is everyone’s garden, and encourage students to treat all living things in the garden with respect
When starting the garden lesson, have the students sit at the outdoor garden classroom and take out their notebooks
When it is time to explore the garden, establish garden rules such as
- no running
- you may touch everything with one finger (it’s almost impossible to hurt a plant with only one finger)
After the exploration period, return to the outdoor garden classroom to discuss what the students encountered in the garden and conclude the lesson