Elon University
IN-49: Innovation C

Elon University has a partnership with a local school, Eastlawn Elementary School, that focuses on environmental education, school gardens, food justice, and sustainability. Undergraduates in two courses, Environmental Education (a fall course) and Garden-Based Learning (a spring course), assist with the maintenance of the school garden at Eastlawn and help facilitate Garden Club for 3rd-5th graders every Tuesday after school. This partnership began in Fall 2018 and is ongoing. In Environmental Education, each student spends about 10 hours throughout the semester at Eastlawn helping with the garden and Garden Club. Garden-Based Learning is an Academic Service-Learning course, so each student spends about 30 hours during the semester at Eastlawn, the community partner for the course. In the Fall of 2019, Dr. Scott Morrison received a $4,000 Community Partnership Initiative grant from the Kernodle Center for Service Learning and Community Engagement at Elon University. These funds were used to expand the garden, plant fruit trees and bushes, provide gravel walkways in the garden, and enhance the composting system. Dr. Morrison also hosts workshops for Eastlawn teachers on how to incorporate the garden into their lessons. In addition, this partnership was the focus of an undergraduate research study, “Examining the Social-Emotional Effects of a School Garden at a Title I Elementary School.” The findings of the study were overwhelmingly positive: nearly all student journal entries described positive garden experiences and all of the teachers indicated they had an overall positive experience and would use the garden again.