The students at Alliance Middle School are getting their hands dirty with the new AMS Garden Club. The club began this year under the guidance of AMS science teacher Nathan Morrison, who strives to teach students about the importance of sustainability and self-sufficiency through the school's very own gardens.
Morrison grew up in a gardening culture where he learned the benefits of agriculture and self-sustainability. He’s excited to share his agricultural knowledge with his students as they learn about the growing season, different types of plants, and how to properly tend the gardens to ensure a good crop.
“The goal is to provide a fun and exciting wrinkle to the everyday classroom, along with incorporating gardening into the curriculum and eventually being able to provide for the school and the future Alliance High School Culinary Arts program,” Morrison said.
During the warmer months, students tend to the garden, plant seeds, and harvest produce that’s ready for picking. They have learned about a variety of plants and vegetables and the specific needs of each one. From a science perspective, students have discussed how vegetative organisms reproduce and how natural selection can be a factor in species variation.
“The students love the idea of the gardens,” Morrison explained. “Almost every day, they ask to go outside and take a look or tend to the garden. It’s a great way to take a break from the classroom and the day-to-day grind while still getting some science and agriculture worked in.”
The Garden Club aligns with the 8th-grade science curriculum, which covers vegetative reproduction, species diversity through heredity, and genetics. One of the key genetics lessons students discuss in class comes from Austrian monk Gregor Mendel and the experiments on plants the students will eventually grow in the gardens.
Some of the plants they have grown include cherry tomatoes, lettuce, and radishes. Students in the Garden Club enjoyed their lettuce and tomatoes in a fresh salad, while the radishes were pickled.
“Some students had never tried radishes before,” Morrison said. “That was a fun experiment—watching them do a taste test of the produce they grew.”
Funding for the Garden Club comes from the Stark County Health Department, and the outdoor garden was established through a generous donation from the Grove family. Morrison looks forward to eventually incorporating community partners into the club.
“My hope for the future of the Garden Club is that, throughout the year, we are able to teach students how to maintain the garden, and it then becomes completely student-led,” Morrison said. “My other hope is that as the responsibilities of the garden grow, the garden itself will grow in size as well, adding new beds and possibly some other features.”