Middle School Enrichment
Deepening engagement through elective-based food systems education
Middle School Programming
Our middle school learners have the option to opt in to an elective class. Staff and students see each other 2-3 times a week throughout the school year. Each quarter addresses a different topic, and students are able to switch electives each quarter. However, we often see many of the same students quarter to quarter!
A Typical Year of Programming:
First Quarter
During the fall quarter, students are taught how to maintain a garden. Often, this is the first time that many of them have seen food production in person, and others may try their first garden tomato and comment on how different it tastes from store-bought produce.
In addition, students are able to prepare their gardens for winter, which creates a feeling of excitement for the growing season to begin in the spring.
Second Quarter
In the second quarter, we head indoors as students learn about nutrition. We incorporate weekly recipes related to the topics and ideas they’ve covered over the past few days, helping them to establish tangible connections and conclusions to what they’re learning.
Students love being able to cook their own snacks and earn a sense of accomplishment as they grow their culinary skills.
Third Quarter
For quarter three, we educate students about concepts of food justice. As the majority of our school gardens are located in food deserts or areas of food insecurity, we find it important to inform these students about larger, abstract concepts and systems that make the food system what it is.
Similarly to quarter two, we incorporate relevant and culturally conscious recipes weekly to solidify the connections between culture and food systems.
Fourth Quarter
Finally, in quarter 4, students learn about soil quality, planting methods, and how to design a garden. We incorporate students’ input on what they’d like to grow and how they’d like to grow it, supplying them with the tools and knowledge they need to help their gardens thrive.
When the weather allows, we take the students back outside to bring their gardens to life, creating an amazing and enriching start to the growing season!
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Program Outcomes
During this development stage, it’s important to provide our students with the opportunity to connect learning with their own interests. In this enrichment, we utilize weekly recipes, garden planning, and group discussions to engage each student in their own unique way.
In addition, we emphasize peer collaboration for problem-solving and discourse, giving students a sense of autonomy and independence, crucial for middle school learners.
What Students Are Saying:
“I enjoyed cooking because it was fun, knowing about nutrition”
- Kepner Beacon Middle School Student
“I enjoyed going outside and doing the mushroom stuff and planting the seeds in our salad bowls and watching our plants grow”
- Manual Middle School Student
Explore All of our Programming
SustainEd Farms hosts a range of grade-level and community programming to forge lasting relationships between surrounding communities and their school gardens.