evaluation results

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I know that the Food Project has a model for evaluation. You can visit them at www.thefoodproject.org ...they actually have a really great program going that I've looked at when setting up my own garden programs.

 

 

i do a school garden program with K-8 in NYC.  We use a simple half-page evaluation at the beginning and end of the school year to assess what students' progression.  We ask the following four questions:
1. List 3 things plants need to grow
2. List 2 things to do in the garden
3. What are the 4 parts of a plant?
4. What is your favorite plant?

They are pretty broad, open-ended questions with a variety of "right" answers.  This is partly to keep it from being too much of a "test" and partly because answers give us an idea of what kids really paid attention to and were interested in. 

We aggregate the responses to the first three questions as % students who accurately listed 3 things a plant needs to grow, % who accurately listed 2 things, % who accurately listed 1, and % 0 ¯ following the same pattern for the next two questions.

Answers to the last question can be particularly interesting, because the range of favorite plants grows so much from beginning of program to end.   It also helps to give kids a sense that plants are something they have a relationship to, especially at the time of the pre-test.

 

 

There is a magazine published called Gardening with Kids, 800-538-7476 or
http://store.kidsgardening.com.  The magazine is great and I got it for the
school to use.  www.kidsgardening.com/school/register.asp-- this is where
you can register your school garden.