Growing minds: cultivating environmental attitudes in the school garden

The research question addressed in this capstone is: how does experiencing learning in a school garden affect environmental attitudes in children? The rationale for this capstone project was the absence of many of today\u27s children in nature, ultimately leading to underdeveloped environmental attitudes. This study compares the environmental attitudes of two classes of fifth grade students before and after learning similar life science concepts. One class was instructed inside a classroom using science curriculum while the other learned the same topics through an outdoor school gardening project. Data was collected through student surveys, and was used to compare the change in environmental attitudes in both groups. The results demonstrated that both groups developed improved attitudes toward the environment, with the experimental group showing the highest level of growth and the most positive attitudes at the end of the project