If you want to imagine what Alberta will look like in twenty years, chat with a child. Afterall, it’s the children of today who will shape what Alberta becomes—so it’s important for us to support them as they grow into the stewards of tomorrow. And one of the best ways to do that is to teach them where their food comes from. That’s where AMA’s new online School Garden Studio comes in.
Explaining to a student how a tomato plant grows is one thing. Seeing that student thoughtfully cultivate a thriving indoor tower garden, sampling or sharing a bright red fruit right off a vine they’ve tended to themselves is a lived experience they won’t easily forget.
And that’s the aim of the School Garden Studio, which is supported by the AMA Community Foundation. The studio invites teachers to connect with a blossoming network of experts and peers working to let junior high students nurture growing spaces inside their own classrooms. The goal is for students to literally get their hands dirty through all stages of a gardening experience: planning, seeding, maintaining, harvesting, and eventually even tasting—and yes, sharing—the fruits of their labours.
It’s that sharing piece that AMA hopes to help teachers with most of all. Sharing knowledge; sharing healthy food; sharing a love for the communities that we call home. So, when we ask the tweens and teens of today what a future Alberta will look like, hopefully their inspired to say it’ll look like a community that cares.
