Exit Slip (Oct 5) - UBC Orchard Garden

Education in the garden was a completely different experience than education in the classroom. Just the feeling of fresh air and sunlight gave me an energy boost that I would not normally feel in the classroom. Often times when students sit through lectures, we get sleepy or unfocused, lighting in the classroom plays a role in how tired I feel. When the lighting is more dim I feel sleepy. When we were outside I felt energized and very engaged in what we were doing. I also found that the activities we did outside left more room for us to explore and as the paper we read discussed, we were able to slow down and really analyze, experience and learn. When we were drawing things around us in the garden we were really able to carefully analyze and draw intricacies at a slower pace. Also when we wove the ribbon together I gained an embodied sort of learning, one that is difficult to experience in the classroom. In the classroom we could study the pattern and analyze the movements but actually doing it and physically feeling the movement and interacting with classmates made the experience much more memorable and meaningful.

I think the benefits of experiencing education in the garden are the visual and physical aspects of everything. You can take anything you learn in the classroom and give a physical representation of it to help solidify student learning and understanding. Visual aids are must more memorable than blocks of text. I also think the atmosphere itself is more conducive to learning. Having a clear and relaxed mind set often makes me focus and therefore learn better. I also think the pace of garden-based learning is beneficial to all. It gives individuals the chance to observe and learn at their own pace. I do however think this could also be a drawback. If the pace is too slow students might get distracted away from the task at hand. I also don't think all activities should be done in the garden, but it can definitely give room for a refreshing change. I think most of the grunt work in educating should be done in the classroom and once students have a good grasp of content the exploration portion of learning can be experienced in the garden. This additional learning should act to reinforce knowledge through visual and experiential learning. Garden based learning can be used for exploration or inquiry, allowing students to guide their own learning and observations. A good balance of classroom and outdoor education can be highly meaningful to any student and I hope to implement some of this into my own teaching one day.

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