Ithaca Childrens Garden, Ithaca NY

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Ithaca Childrens Garden, Ithaca NY

• CGC experience in an after-school setting with
  third grade students

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The CGC toolkit was piloted in an elementary
school setting and provided

• A reality check to see whether the toolkit was
  effective and that all the links work.
• A chance to trial it with an audience younger
  than our target age (in this case, third graders,
  not teen-aged youth).

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South Hill Third Graders how did we modify CGC,
and what did they have to tell us?
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A Snapshot of our 6-week program

• Week 1 Intro Recruited youth from afterschool
  program Background What is Ithaca Childrens
  Garden...Why we need their help...What is a
  consultant....Brainstorm ideas on how they would
  like to work on this "dot voting" on areas of
  the Ithaca Children's Garden they wanted to work
  on
• Week 2 Exploring the school grounds, chatting,
  brainstorming a big list of ideas

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Snapshot, continued

• Week 3 Looking at photos from other children's
  gardens
• Week 4 Choose groups to work in...decide on a
  discovery garden idea....start flushing out ideas
• Week 5 Building models/creating posters
• Week 6 Presentations

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We made many modifications

• We didnt separate design from education.
• We used the school setting as an example of
  gardens intended for young people.  The youth in
  the group, however, were designing gardens they'd
  like to see at the Ithaca Children's Garden. We
  took walks around the school instead of field
  trips to other sites.

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• Instead of using the Internet to explore national
  examples, we collected photographs of other
  children's gardens. We had about 250 photos from
  other children's gardens that youth looked
  through and commented on.
• Children communicated likes and dislikes with
  sticky notes.  These were compiled and the top
  15-20 were put on posters.
• Children self-selected into groups of 2-4.

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• We spent 1 week (1 hour session) sketching and
  listing ideas and 2 weeks (2 1-hour sessions)
  building models and creating posters.
• Children presented their findings and opinions to
  afterschool staff, parents, and ICG
  representatives.

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What we learned

• The main theme in many of the designs was a
  desire to have a place to hang out that was
  peaceful and safe.
• The children emphasized plant material you could
  do stuff with. They had very active, rather
  than passive, visions for what a garden is for
  children.

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What we learned, continued

• The children placed considerable emphasis on
  having designated places for different ages,
  especially younger children.
• Many children designed gardens with a theme that
  reflected their personal interest. E.g., we saw
  a wolf garden and a cat garden!