• Would you like to help children learn about garden, farms, and food?
• Do you want to gain experience teaching and working with children and the public?
• Are you looking for a hands-on way to connect to the land and practices that sustain our community and planet?

Kids in the Garden is a winter-through-spring internship program that gives you all this and more!  UC Davis students can earn credit as Kids in the Garden field trip guides through an internship program that is both fun and educational.

There are no prerequisites for your involvement in this opportunity — just bring your enthusiasm and willingness to try new things!  This winter course and the spring internship attract students from a wide variety of majors and at all levels, from freshmen to graduate students.

The Kids in the Garden program was started by UC Davis students and continues today because of their enthusiastic and creative participation. Each winter, students take the 2-unit class PLS 193, Garden and Farm-Based Experiential Education Methods, to train to become guides for school groups that visit the Ecological Garden and Student Farm in the following spring. Through a combination of lecture and interactive, hands-on activities, students develop and test new ideas for the spring tour program. Their participation gives them direct experience in agricultural and environmental education. Many go on to use this expertise later to work in a variety of experiential education and food systems careers.

Winter Quarter - PLS 193 - Garden and Farm-Based Experiential Education Methods

This class gives you the biological and ecological understanding and the teaching skills necessary to work with children in a garden setting. You will learn "tried and true" activities to do with children and we will guide you as you design and try out new activities.  The course is taught by Student Farm Staff with guest appearances from experienced students and faculty.

Spring Quarter - Internship for 1, 2, or 3 units

In spring quarter, the real fun begins!  You will be leading garden tours and activities for the K-6 school groups that visit the garden on field trips.  Watch kids delight in nature and help them to use all their senses as they harvest carrots, make a fresh salad, inspect beneficial insects or go on a scavenger hunt. You can do this for one or two sessions each week to earn one or two internship units.

For more information, contact:

Lexie Nelson, Education Coordinator 

llnelson@ucdavis.edu