Want to raise kids with a strong connection to nature? You don’t need to look any further than your backyard, according to a new study from the Horticultural Sciences department at Texas A&M University.
Researchers at the school looked at whether or not formal, hands-on youth gardening programs had any effect on elementary students’ environmental consciousness.
Study results indicated that children that had any type of experience with gardening – and 80 percent of them had had previous experience before the gardening program that was studied -- had more positive attitudes toward the environment when compared with students that had not gardened in any setting.
Researchers concluded that hands-on gardening activities are important to the development of environmentally concerned citizens. Interestingly, they also concluded that children's involvement in informal gardening experiences has as much impact on their environmental outlook as involvement in formal school-based programs. So it’s true that raising a budding environmentalist may start with asking your little one to help water your vegetable patch.
Girls and Caucasians appeared to draw more benefit from the gardening curriculum. The study authors suggested that future research should focus on the development of gardening curricula that target the needs and interests of boys and minority children.
