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| June 1999 Students dirty hands in
The sun is making an uncharacteristic late spring appearance, casting its brilliant warmth over the half-acre garden that sits on the flat plain of the Rattlesnake valley. Next to rows of cool-weather vegetables - spinach, lettuce, kale - a group of students sits companionably on the ground, running their hands through beds of rich, dark earth. The students are weeding the beds to fulfill a service-learning requirement in Kathy Humphries' summer semester nutrition class at UM. The class, HHP 236N, is one of about two dozen each year at the University that ask students to learn, in part, by providing volunteer labor in the community. "We use the community as our laboratory," Humphries said. "You come out here and you can feel the sun and the heat and the humidity. You can see how the plants are doing the work." During the students' eight-hour service-learning project, they will have the chance to relate what they learn in class to the real world. Here, in one of Garden City Harvest's community plots, the students learn firsthand where food comes from. They learn about the relationship between nutrition and good health, about phytochemicals and vitamins. And because Garden City Harvest provides fresh produce to the Missoula Food Bank, the students also learn about issues of hunger. "The idea with service learning is not to just go do the project, but to help the students make the connection with what they're doing," Humphries said. Initially, some students are not thrilled about the prospect of doing volunteer work. "They say, 'I'm paying tuition and you're making me dig in the dirt,'" Humphries said. But digging in the dirt eventually wins them over, as they see how the hands-on labor adds to their learning experience. "By the time the students are done with it, they are almost all excited about it," Humphries said. "Last year we had a lot of students who kept on after the class was over. They liked it." Ginny Kokorudz, her fingers sifting soil as she culls out weeds, said she has previously done volunteer work, but never understood the full meaning until she took a class that included service learning. "I think it's the best way to learn," Kokorudz said. "Getting out and putting your learning to work is most helpful. And it gives you a feeling of giving back to the community." The garden's supervisor, Greg Price, said the donated time makes a big difference in the community. "It certainly benefits the garden," Price said. He also said it's important for young people -- many of whom have never grown anything themselves -- to make the connection between food and the earth. "They get to see where nutrition comes from -- which is dirt," he said. "I don't think people make that connection. We just know we go to the supermarket and pick things off shelves." -- Patia Stephens |
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