Creating a Horticultural Curriculum Addressing Environmental Concerns

Research indicates that the average age of the American farmer is 57. This fact warrants future research detailing why more individuals are not involved in agriculture in a traditional sense. To encourage today’s youth to become more aware of agriculture, an education program was developed to increase youth interest in agriculture and environmental concerns. A horticultural curriculum was developed and implemented at a summer camp targeting participants ages 9–12. A treatment group consisted of campers that signed up for the program and a control group consisted of randomly selected campers from a different camp track. A pre-test and post-test were given to both student groups. The test consisted of 16 general horticultural knowledge multiple choice questions and four questions pertaining to the campers’ environmental stewardship. During the second year of the study, pre-tests and post-tests had minor corrections but also included a short answer question targeting in-depth knowledge of flower pollination. Lesson topics included propagation, Victory Gardens, soil, recycling, plant parts, pollination, photosynthesis, and insects. Lessons were developed with several teaching methods using of the three basic learning styles of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Statistical analysis of variance using PROC GLIMIX at the 0.05 level found that participants in the treatment group had a significant improvement of general horticulture knowledge from pre-test to post-test responses. In addition post-test scores of treatment participants were significantly higher than control participants in both years of the study. Confidence analysis found that treatment students were significantly more likely to be confident that they could explain to others how to grow a plant, and that they could grow more than one type of plant. Analysis of the second year of data found that treatment students were significantly more likely to feel confident that they could  plant a seed that would grow into a plant. Although demographic data was taken for each participant including gender, age, and ethnicity, no significant differences were found for any of these groups. Analysis of the short answer portion of the exam found that students from the treatment group were more likely to respond with multiple correct answers.