School Gardens Teaching More Than Nutrition

Involving students in school garden activities is not only teaching them about nutrition, but is also boosting their exercise and physical activity. A study of 12 elementary schools in New York state conducted by Cornell University researchers over a two-year period found that elementary school children with gardens were more physically active at school than before their school had gardens. They were also less sedentary at home and elsewhere. 

For the study, students wore accelerometers to measure physical activity for three consecutive school days on four separate occasions. Surveys were also used to capture the children's general activity and sedentary patterns including time at home.

The Results 

Children that learned in a garden were significantly more physically active compared to an indoor class.

On average, children sat for 84 percent and stood for 10 percent of an indoor class.

During garden lessons, children moved about much more and sat for only 15 percent of the time while spending the majority of their time walking, standing and kneeling.

This is the first true experiment to measure the effects of school gardens on children's physical activity, said Nancy Wells, professor of design and environmental analysis in Cornell's College of Human Ecology. It is notable that in our intervention, kids were only spending an hour or two per week in the gardens, yet there was a significant difference in physical activity. The findings suggest that if schools embraced gardens further and integrated them into lesson plans, there might be an even greater effect. 

The findings show that school gardens are an effective way to begin to nudge kids toward their 60 minutes of daily activity recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Wells added. Given the relatively modest scope of this intervention, the next step would be to design ways to make it easy for schools to adopt garden-based lessons more widely into their curricula.

Subscribe to our Trusted Health Club newsletter for more information about natural living tips, natural health, oral health and skincare. If you are looking for more health resources make sure to check out the Trusted Health Resources list.  

Reviewed By:

Founder Ray Spotts has a passion for all things natural and has made a life study of nature as it relates to health and well-being. Ray became a forerunner bringing products to market that are extraordinarily effective and free from potentially harmful chemicals and additives. For this reason Ray formed Trusted Health Products, a company you can trust for clean, effective, and healthy products. Ray is an organic gardener, likes fishing, hiking, and teaching and mentoring people to start new businesses. You can get his book for free, “How To Succeed In Business Based On God’s Word,” at www.rayspotts.com.