K-12 EDUCATION: GROWING KIDS WITH THE CARROTS You're tricking us--you buried those carrots in the dirt before we got here!" is what some of the kids say when they pull carrots out of the ground when they work in the garden for the first time, says Eric Zilbert, a lecturer involved with UC Davis' agricultural education outreach program. "But other kids know the yield of a plant or the requirements for photosynthesis--the breadth of knowledge always surprises me." Diana Charmberry, an English teacher at Evergreen Elementary School in West Sacramento found the same discrepancies in plant know-how, as well as a school in need of some big change. When she started teaching at Evergreen in 1993 she was warned by other teachers that 42 percent of the parents were non-English-speaking immigrants--primarily from Hmong and Mien cultures--who rarely participated in their children's school activities. Now, five years later, there aren't enough chairs for the crowd of parents and relatives who attend the school's Christmas pageant in December. A gardening project made the difference. Charmberry offered small plots at the school to families and included a demonstration garden for traditional Hmong and Mien vegetables and other plants. The project has raised the self-esteem of both the school children and the non-English-speaking elders who are now "valued as teacher," said Charmberry. This renewed enthusiasm in parent-involved, multi-disciplinary education is what prompted State Superintendent of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin, a 1969 graduate of UC Davis, to announce her goal of a garden in every school in California by the year 2000. To that end, the state Department of Education created a task force of agricultural educators, including several experts at UC Davis. One participant is Carol Hillhouse, coordinator for the Children's Garden at the UC Davis Student Experimental Farm. Her large-windowed office in a little yellow building--reminiscent of a one-room schoolhouse--looks out over the garden. Every spring, student "tour guides" take elementary school classes through what Hillhouse likes to call a gardening "experience." They learn about the garden by working in it, harvesting the vegetables and then making a salad. According to Hillhouse, the Children's Garden experience is a valuable one, but if, as Eastin hopes, the kids had a vegetable garden in their school, they would have "a much deeper experience." Hillhouse and others in the task force encourage and support the development of gardens through a multi-pronged approach. The UC Davis Children's Garden Program is a series of workshops for teachers on specific garden-related topics, including one that provides basic training for teams of teachers and parents from each school. They are also continuing the school garden internship program and developing statewide networks of individuals involved with the project. Though California's economy depends heavily on agriculture, many of the state's citizens know little about the activity. Proponents of school gardens argue that, by teaching kids about planting and the food production process, they will become better citizens by becoming better stewards of the land. And the list of gardening benefits goes on. "A garden in every school [creates] opportunities for our children to discover fresh food, make healthier food choices and become better nourished," reads the School Garden Project's vision statement. Researchers at UC Davis are currently working on a study they believe will definitively link improved nutrition to gardening. Said Hillhouse, "Certainly the children who come to this garden to harvest and prepare salads are chowing down. They love it." In addition, gardens are teaching devices for many subjects. Kids can study geography by researching a plant's origin, math by determining the number of seeds needed to plant a bed, social studies by discussing the way other cultures use certain plants and even the fine arts by using the garden as a muse or subject matter. The benefits of gardening can be psychological, too. Said Tara Winning, a recent graduate and former school garden intern with the Children's Garden project, "Kids find esteem in caring for 'other.' Many of the children can't have pets, and gardens are another way for them to take on the responsibility of a project and earn pride through it." Delaine Eastin's commitment to school gardens has caused an explosion of activity on the subject, but, says Dan Desmond, statewide director of 4-H in UC's Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, "Gardens in schools have been around forever." Desmond is another of the many experts affiliated with UC Davis who are lending support to the push for school gardens. Desmond believes gardens in schools will improve American children's science literacy, which lags behind that of students internationally. He points to research that indicates a lack of labs and hands-on science activities in the primary grades as a cause of the inferior performance. Desmond and many others involved with education agree that using gardens as labs is the answer: for science, nutrition, environmental education, community involvement and even psychological well-being.