In 2020, at the peak of distance learning during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Teri Jacobs, the undergraduate director of environmental studies, wanted a place for students to do hands-on work safely. So Jacob’s plot at the Mount Auburn Garden Initiative and Collaboration (MAGIC) garden, a small plot next to the Mount Auburn Preparatory Academy, began to bring more hands-on education to the environmental studies department.
The school maintains its own plots and allows Jacobs to utilize a 10-foot-by-six-foot piece of land for student education. In 2020, students from Jacobs soils course did the initial preparation for the plot, but the work continued with resource conservation, another class Jacobs teaches, as well as capstone students, volunteers and interns.
Sydney McMillan, a recent University of Cincinnati (UC) graduate, built the MAGIC garden from the ground up. “Sometimes, if you’re learning in a classroom, you can really kind of skip around, and nothing is very cosive,” McMillan said.
The 18 students in the soils course who helped create the garden had to start with a small plot of land, kill the grass and split it into three sections. It was not built for them, so they had to learn how to create it as a class.
“This is a student-led project,” Jacobs said. “I have done nothing except mentor, watch, and guide them.”
The students would design and conduct their own experiments, such as soil water retention and the impacts of native species. Then, when more questions arose, Jacobs encouraged them to find the answers themselves.
The students conduct real-world research that they hope to scale to larger impacts in the science community. In summer 2022, Scott Furlong, a fifth-year geology and environmental studies student, researched biochar, a biological charcoal made from burning organic material. He is currently writing a paper on his findings for publishing. Biochar is a carbon-negative way to keep soils healthy and can aid in soil water eention. Furlong said his research looks at biochar as a “regenerative farming technique that’s still in its baby stages.”
Currently, Jacobs said there is very little research on biochar use, so she and her students hope to contribute to the knowledge gaps, especially regarding biochar use in urban settings.
Hands-on, experiential learning is a way for students to deepen their understanding of the information they have learned, Jacob said — numerous academic studies back this idea. For example, an article written in 2012 by Randy Bass discussed “high-impact practices” described by the U.S. National Survey of Student Engagement. These experiences that students may get in college are connected to better overall learning; examples include learning communities and capstone projects. Studies like these have shown that hands-on learning outside classroom instruction enhances student learning.
“If we are beginning to see that the greatest impact on learning is in these boundary-crossin, ntegrative, and socially networked experiences, then we need to re-create dimensions of these experiences in the learning designs that bridge the classroom with life outside of it,” Bass wrote in the study.
The MAGIC garden, Jacob said, can be a bridge between the classroom and the real-world. It is a place where students can practice skills, make mistakes, and learn before going out and getting post-graduate jobs.
Several UC students have taken up projects with the MAGIC garden. The UC Pollinator Club is working on creating a pollinator garden in collaboration with Jacobs. Wade Isphording, a second-year environmental studies student and founder and co-president of the UC Pollinator Club, said the group wants to create a space with native plants that cater to specialized bees from the area.
“I hope to get other students involved and [have the garden] serve as a place where professors can bring their classes to do research, such as analyzing the plants that the pollinators are isiing,” Isphording said.
Students who have been involved in the MAGIC garden say it has had a major impact on them. McMillan specifically emphasized the sense of empowerment she gained through learning new skills, applying them and seeing the results afterward. “It wasn’t until I started doing more hands-on learning that I started feeling excitement and wonder lust for what I was doing,” McMillan said. “In environmental studies, students are like, ‘is this worth it? Am I doing anything? Can I do anything?’ and when you’re able to go to this space and apply skills while you’re learning, you have ‘ah-ha’ moments of ‘I can do this, and it is possible.'”
“My goal is education, whether it’s educating about agroecology [sustainable farming], soil principles for soil health, whether it’s how to educate others about carbon sequestration [the act of capturing and storing carbon from the atmosphere], or teaching students how to do research,” Jacobs said.
Jacobs’ students continue to reap he bnefits. “The garden taught me plant identification, as well as which months and what temperatures are needed to sow different plants. Even though a lot of the plants died off, I learned about how temperature can impact their growth, how much water they need, and the importance of healthy soil,” Hannah Binzer, a fourth-year environmental studies student who interned at the garden this summer, said.
In the future, Jacobs hopes to find more students to get involved in the garden, adding that students can get research credit for their work. These opportunities can count as co-ops, internships, and volunteer hours. The students who have worked on the garden so far have been primarily capstone and upper-class students who go on to graduate, leaving the garden with few to tend to it.
Using the garden as work experience can be valuable for any UC student, not just those from the environmental studies program. “Showing any employer that I can form this idea that I wanted to learn more bout, McMillan said. “I showed up to this place every day, I committed to this, and I have data to show for it. That alone looks good on me.” Just like any other job experience, it does wonders for a resume. Students may find a real passion for it, McMillian says, adding, “The wonder and motivation to do something hands-on when you’re actually in the field, it really ignites a fire in you.”
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