The USA's National Wildlife Federation encourages outdoor learning in\u00a0school gardens and habitat areas and is active in 8,400 schools.<\/p>\n
As such, it is interested in\u00a0the academic and broader learning effects of school garden programs, and has recently\u00a0tried to\u00a0summarise what the research literature says about gardens as a learning asset for schools. \u00a0It drew on a recent literature survey<\/a>\u00a0(Williams and Dixon 2013) which is a summative assessment of 48 studies (between 1990 and 2010) of the various effects of school gardens on learning and other outcomes.<\/p>\n The Federation says this about all this:<\/p>\n \u201cThe results of the studies show overwhelmingly that garden-based learning had a positive impact on students\u2019 grades, knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. \u00a0These positive impacts prevailed for nearly every outcome group, including the elementary, middle, and high school levels, with positive impacts of 85%, 83%, and 91%, respectively, although the number of studies at the high school level was the lowest. \u00a0The preponderance of overall positive findings is important since research methodologies of the 48 studies were found to be highly eclectic. These findings speak to the potential of garden programs in benefitting academic and academic-related outcomes.\"<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n It goes on to make a point that reminds me of the work that Garden Organic did a few years back\u00a0for\u00a0the Food Growing in Schools Task Force:<\/p>\n \"However, these results also indicate that garden instructional activities may need more curricular development and integration with particular subject areas if they are intended to improve academic performance. \u00a0Perhaps garden-based learning could serve as one venue to advance the recent interest in education reform promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) initiatives (National Science Foundation, 2010) and for career prospects in horticulture, landscape design, and architecture, as well as food, nutrition, and health.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Foundation said that, taken as a whole, the advantages of garden-based activities are overwhelmingly positive because school gardens support constructivist learning. \u00a0It also pointed to three studies:<\/p>\n Radcliffe<\/a> et al. 2011<\/p>\n