Life Lab Science Program

Causes: Education, Educational Services

Mission: Life lab cultivates children's love of learning, healthy food and nature through garden-based education.

Programs: Local programs (santa cruz county, ca): life lab provides school garden staff and programs in public elementary schools in santa cruz county, particularly in the pajaro valley unified school district. It also provides field trips and day camps at its garden classroom and blooming classroom educational gardens located in santa cruz and watsonville, respectively. Gardens give children the chance to experience hands-on learning about science, nutrition, the environment and much more. The garden classroom also serves as a demonstration site for visitors interested in developing educational gardens. Life lab staff train and mentor more than 50 college and community interns each year in field trip and school garden programs. These local programs served more than 5,000 children age 4 to 14 in 2017.

national programs: life lab offers hands-on workshops on garden-based science, nutrition, and environmental education for educators from across the nation at the garden classroom and on demand around the u. S. It also hosts an annual national school garden support organization leadership institute. Life lab develops and distributes curricula, activity guides and other learning materials nationally to support prek-6 teachers in successfully implementing hands-on garden-based education programs. As a longtime leader in this field, life lab facilitates networking and information sharing among organizations supporting garden-based learning through the national school garden network it co-founded in 2013. These national programs impacted more than 500,000 students across the u. S. In 2017.