Nature Learning Lab Connects Students with Growing Food

TULSA, Okla. — It's Crazy Hair Day and harvest season at Under the Canopy School in West Tulsa, where 3rd graders are picking produce in the school's Nature Learning Lab on a Wednesday morning.

Their instructor, known to students as Ms. Jazz, guides them around Hügelkultur mounds — fertile growing beds made of rotting wood, compost and straw — where a variety of vegetables are cultivated.

"I think their relationship to food is a little bit fragmented because they're not involved in the growing and harvesting of their food," said Fallon Smith. "Getting them in touch with that experience builds relationship to their food and they have better experiences with eating vegetables and then they want to share that experience with their families."

From planting to harvesting, students are involved in every part of the process. On this day, they took their harvested produce and turned it into spring rolls — part of their lunch and one of many recipes made from school-grown ingredients that students can take home.

The learning doesn't stop when the weather turns. Students are regularly outside in the elements, as long as conditions are not dangerous.

"A lot of the time when it's raining outside, we're looking for bugs," Smith said. "Our kids are really excited about grub worms and earthworms."

Rain or shine, students learn how different weather conditions affect what they grow and how the seasons shape their work in the Nature Learning Lab.

"Most of the time students are noticing things as they're happening in real time," Smith said. "The leaves are falling off the trees. Why is that happening? Following those curiosities is really important and then leads to more buy-in from their educational experience. Because I'm not just regurgitating information to the child, I'm building a relationship to the thing that they care about."

The outdoor space is used year-round and serves as a unique, hands-on learning model for pre-K through 4th grade students who don't mind getting dirty to better understand nature in their own backyard.

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