Regular primary schools wanted for school garden research

Start them young: food preferences learned at a young age continue into later life.

Does school gardening encourage healthy food preferences?

Wageningen University & Research (WUR) is currently conducting research to find out whether school gardening can encourage preferences for vegetables and healthy food among primary school children. Do children find it easier to eat radishes when they have grown them themselves? And does anything change in their personal or social development after spending some time gardening at school?

These are questions that WUR is investigating as part of the I’VE GROWN project, a five-year study in collaboration with Rijk Zwaan, Jong Leren Eten, and Alliantie Schooltuinen.

What kind of primary schools is WUR looking for?

To get the clearest possible picture, WUR is looking for schools throughout the Netherlands that would like to participate in our research. Which primary schools are we looking for? For the study, we are looking for mainstream primary schools:

1. Where at least one class in the upper grades (groups 5–8) is taking school garden lessons for the first year.

2. Where children grow their own vegetables/fruit during school garden lessons, from seed to harvest.

3. Where children take at least 10 school garden lessons.

What will your school gain from participating?

This is the first time that research into the effects of school gardening is being conducted on this scale in the Netherlands. By participating, you will therefore make an important contribution to scientific research, but there are other benefits as well:

1. Insight into the results: Are you also curious about the results of the study? We will keep you informed of our findings.
2. Promotional material: If desired, we will share the specific results for your class/school. Perhaps you can use these to put the school garden program at your school in the spotlight?
3. Reading comprehension: During the two hours we visit, the children will practise reading comprehension in a different way than they are used to.
4. Children enjoy it: The preliminary study shows that most children enjoy doing this. More than half of the children even wanted to fill out another questionnaire like this one!

How does it work?

The research team would like to visit the school twice for one hour, so that the children can complete a questionnaire under their supervision. They will do a tasting activity with some of the children. The date and time will be arranged in consultation.

The study takes a total of 2 hours at school: 1 hour before the school garden lessons begin and 1 hour after the school garden lessons have ended. Since the researchers prepare everything (questionnaires and materials for the tasting activity), participation does not involve any additional tasks for the teacher. As a teacher, you only need to be present.

Would you like to register your school?

Would you like to register your school/class to participate in the study? You can do so via this link. Or do you have any questions first? Feel free to send them to [email protected], and they will be happy to answer them.