Research & reports

Joshua Amponsem, Nathalie Sänger, Marie-Claire Graf · Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · Global

This chapter presents youth perspectives on opportunities and barriers for green urban transformation (GUT) in urban centers. It highlights best-practice examples from Germany and Ghana to promote self-sufficient urban food production and zero-waste communities. The discussion focuses on overcoming barriers through youth governance, a post-COVID green recovery pathway, and making GUT knowledge accessible to young people.

Anne Forbes, Vinesh Chandra, Linda Pfeiffer, Rachel Sheffield · Cambridge University Press eBooks · Australia

This textbook, "STEM Education in the Primary School," introduces pre-service teachers to STEM theory, skills, and practice using a project-based learning approach. It integrates STEM elements with the Australian Curriculum through a school garden project case study, exploring topics like health, shelter, and space with age-appropriate examples. The text connects current STEM education research to teaching practice, covering assessment, learning spaces, and community.

Yumin Park, Yong-Wook Shin · Journal of people, plants, and environment · Global

A study analyzed the trends and network structure of 'grow-your-own (GYO)' activities by collecting 6,388 Instagram posts containing '#gyo' and '#growyourown' hashtags from June 13, 2020, to April 13, 2021, using social network analysis. The results showed that users expressed preference and interest in GYO through various word combinations, positive emotions and pride through gardening-related hashtags, and participated in urban gardening, indicating trends towards self-sufficiency and sustainable living.

Chong Ling Chan, Pui Yee Tan, Yun Yun Gong · Proceedings of The Nutrition Society · Global

This record is a systematic review evaluating the effectiveness of school garden-based programs on nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes and practices among school children aged 3 to 18; no abstract text is available for this content beyond that description, so no further findings can be reported here.

Louise Mitchell, Lawrence Houston, Michael Hardman, Michelle Howarth, Penny A. Cook · Cogent Social Sciences · Global

Against the backdrop of health services becoming stretched, particularly in ageing populations in the Global North, this paper discusses Green Infrastructure (GI) interventions including the development of social farms in urban areas and deprived communities. Social farms use farming practices as spaces for therapeutic outcomes such as care, rehabilitation, and education, framed within the concept of social prescribing alongside community gardens and urban farms as non-medical approaches. Noting that social farming and social prescribing research is currently concentrated in Scandinavian countries and the USA, the paper focuses on increased UK attention to the concept, including in DEFRA's 25-year Environment Plan. Findings show an agglomeration of social farming sites in rural rather than urban contexts, and the paper discusses tools and barriers for urban development of the practice.

M. G. Morshed, SB Rahman, MA Rahman · Journal of Environmental Science and Natural Resources · Bangladesh

A survey conducted in Sadar upazila, Bogura district, Bangladesh, found that 66% of rooftop gardeners and 70% of homestead gardeners cited producing healthy, fresh food as their reason for gardening. Rooftop gardens contained about 80 plant types and homestead gardens 87, comprising fruits (97%), vegetables (86%), spices (72%), flowers (64%), medicinal plants (64%), ornamentals (23%) and plantation crops (12%). Time invested ranged from under 30 minutes to about an hour a day. Only 28% of homestead gardeners had received training from government agencies or NGOs, while most rooftop gardeners learned from agriculture-focused television programs, and just 18% of rooftop gardeners and 24% of homestead gardeners gardened primarily for economic return.

Paulo Germán García Murillo, Laura Belkis Parada Romero, Juana Yadira Martín Perico, Julio Ernesto Rojas Mesa, Bernardo Garibello Suan · · Colombia (Bogotá)

This paper reports a research project on urban agriculture aimed at fostering scientific citizenship, carried out with fifth-grade students and teachers at the El Carmelo school in Teusaquillo, Bogota, Colombia. Focused on raising awareness of STEAM (environmental, technological, pedagogical and artistic) competencies, it designed two at-home experimental practices using easily obtained cargamanto bean seeds, addressing sustainability, STEAM and learning competencies while surfacing issues such as food security, nutritional culture, a culture of prototyping and strengthened scientific citizenship, and reports that the pandemic unexpectedly extended the project's reach from students to their families.

Anne Forbes, Vinesh Chandra, Linda Pfeiffer, Rachel Sheffield · Cambridge University Press eBooks · Global

This chapter is part of a textbook on STEM education in primary schools that introduces pre-service teachers to the theory, skills, and practice of teaching STEM through a project-based learning approach, integrating STEM elements with the Australian Curriculum via a school garden project case study. Popular STEM topic areas — health, shelter, and space — are explored through age-appropriate, tested project examples that illustrate how STEM ideas translate into classroom practice, connecting current STEM education research to teaching practice through discussion of assessment, learning spaces, community, and the future of STEM.

Most. Tania Akter, Mohammad Mahbub Islam, Parvin Akter Bithy, Suraya Parvin, Md. Ehtasham Bari · Asian Journal of Biology · Bangladesh

A factorial trial at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University's rooftop garden in Dhaka, Bangladesh (October 2017-March 2018) tested two growing structures (plastic pot, earthen pot) and six growing media in a completely randomized design with four replications. Plastic pots produced the most flower clusters, flowers, fruit length and fruit breadth per plant, with maximum yield of 1.69 kg/plant. Medium M5 (80% soil + 10% cowdung + 10% vermicompost + inorganic fertilizer) gave the highest yield at 2.17 kg/plant, and the plastic pot with M5 combination reached 2.15 kg/plant.

Kit Prendergast, Amelie M. Vanderstock, Heather Neilly, Catherine E. Ross, Vanessa Pirotta, Patrick Tegart · Austral Ecology · Australia

A reflection on a citizen science project in which five early-career and PhD female researchers guided school-age children across five schools to build artificial flowers, install them on school ovals, and record over repeated 10-minute observations how flower colour (yellow vs. blue) and configuration (isolated, clumped adjacent, clumped mixed-colour, clumped single-colour) affected the number and taxa of visiting insects. The project achieved a low-cost, engaging format and exposure to female STEM role models, but the authors report constraints including having to run it in a season made suboptimal by fixed school curricula, confounding of results caused by the children's own observations, and an inability to verify the collected data.

Giovanni Delnevo, Roberto Girau, Chiara Ceccarini, Catia Prandi · IEEE Internet of Things Journal · Global

This study combines Social Internet of Things sensing (solar radiation, humidity, air temperature, soil moisture) and communication, crowdsourced image collection and classification, and deep learning for plant disease detection, engaging farmers and community garden owners and experts, to build a system that predicts whether a plant will develop a disease with a given degree of precision. It presents the architecture, deep learning model, and a responsive web app, reporting experimental evaluations and usability/engagement tests alongside limitations and future work.

Paulo Germán García Murillo, Laura Belkis Parada Romero, Juana Yaira Martín Perico · · Colombia

In Bogotá's Teusaquillo locality, Colombia, an urban agriculture project was carried out in 2021 with teachers and fifth-grade students at Colegio El Carmelo during the pandemic, aiming to build awareness of STEAM competencies (environmental, technological, pedagogical, artistic). Two home-based experimental practices were designed using cargamanto bean seeds, chosen for being easy to obtain during food-supply crises, covering sustainability, STEAM and learning competencies. The pandemic period led the project to involve students' families as well as the students themselves, and the resulting reflections on food security, nutritional culture, prototyping culture and scientific citizenship are compiled as a record of the educational practice.

Anne Forbes, Vinesh Chandra, Linda Pfeiffer, Rachel Sheffield · QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology) · Australia

A textbook for pre-service teachers in Australia introducing STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education through project-based learning, using a school-garden case study to integrate topics such as health, shelter and space into the Australian Curriculum across year levels F-6. It covers assessment, learning spaces, community engagement and the future of STEM education, and includes classroom activities, short-answer questions and downloadable templates. It is a teaching text, not an empirical study.

M B Bayer, Susanne Neugart, Tobias Pöhnl · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Global

This study compared kale (Brassica oleracea var. sabellica L.) grown in all four cardinal directions of a residential building, including indoor cultivation behind UV-filtering glass windows. Total carotenoid concentration benefited from sun-exposed growing locations, including the indoor glass condition, while concentrations of nutritionally important lutein did not differ among locations despite their differing abiotic stress conditions (sun exposure, temperature, water). Total phenolic concentration profited most from direct sunlight but was severely reduced behind glass windows. Satisfying growth rates were achieved under all tested conditions.

Anne Forbes, Vinesh Chandra, Linda Pfeiffer, Rachel Sheffield · Cambridge University Press eBooks · Global

This is a chapter from an Australian STEM education textbook for pre-service primary teachers, introducing the theory, skills and practice of teaching STEM through project-based learning. It integrates STEM elements (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) with the Australian Curriculum via a school garden project case study, exploring topic areas such as health, shelter and space through age-appropriate project examples, and connects discussion of assessment, learning spaces, community and STEM futures to classroom teaching practice.

Rebecca K. Kelly, Rosie Nash · Journal of School Health · Global

This systematic scoping review searched PubMed, Web of Science, and EBSCO databases to characterize food literacy (FL) interventions in elementary schools for students aged 4-12. After exclusions, 116 studies were eligible, comprising 105 original interventions ranging in duration from 45 minutes to 4 years. Social cognitive theory was the most referenced theory, and common interventions included classroom lessons, games, school gardens, food preparation, and cooking classes. Most studies (96%, N=111) measured FL outcomes quantitatively; all studies addressed functional FL (N=116), while 77% (N=89) addressed interactive FL and only 28% (N=32) addressed critical FL. As the first international review of FL programs in elementary schools, it found great heterogeneity in intervention design and FL measurement, and concluded that few interventions addressed critical FL, which should be a focus for future interventions.

Johanna Lochner, Marco Rieckmann, Marcel Robischon · Sustainability · Global

A study of Virtual School Garden Exchanges (VSGEs)—which link local gardening with global thinking by having elementary and secondary school students in different parts of the world exchange information about their school gardens and related topics via digital media—focused on educators' perspectives and the learning outcomes they observed, given ongoing controversy over whether VSGEs are suitable for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and whether they produce the learning outcomes educators expect. The researchers conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with VSGE educators, analyzed abductively and qualitatively. Results showed substantial overlap between observed and expected learning outcomes and ESD aims, but the data also revealed that learners engaging with international peers were affected by stereotypes and norms in varying ways: on one hand, VSGEs can lead to "Othering," which is not congruent with either ESD or the expected learning outcomes; on the other, they can inspire Transformative Learning that contributes to ESD aims. The study concludes that VSGEs hold potential for ESD depending on a complex interplay of factors, but are not guaranteed to constitute good ESD practice.

Deisy Carolina Benavides Agudelo, Gustavo Adolfo Mojica Peñaloza · P P D Q Boletín · Colombia

This paper reports a pedagogical practice conducted with 11th-grade students at the Escuela Normal Superior Distrital María Montessori (ENSDMM) in Colombia, from the second half of 2019 to the first half of 2020, as part of Practice I and II of the chemistry degree program at Universidad Pedagógica Nacional. Conducted in a virtual learning context, the practice examined how students understood the process of seeding, harvesting and the chemical composition of the food they consume, framed through organic chemistry functional groups, urban agriculture and food sovereignty. The paper sets out the objectives, theoretical framework, problem statement and methodology, then presents an analysis of the resulting products and conclusions on the scope and limitations of the pedagogical practice's objective, without reporting specific figures or effect sizes.

Alessio Russo, Giuseppe T. Cirella · Agriculture, 10(8), 358 · Global

An empirical study analyzing ten edible green infrastructure (EGI) urban-regeneration case studies in Italy's Campania region through the lens of community development, involvement and education. It documents how citizen-engaged urban gardens contribute to public health (stress reduction, physical activity) and the regeneration of derelict land, with sustainability strengthened by far-sighted urban planning across all five provinces.

Feola G., Suzunaga J., Soler J., Wilson A. · Journal of Rural Studies · Colombia (Sogamoso)

Drawing on a survey of 160 peri-urban farming households in Sogamoso, this study applies the concept of 'quiet sustainability' to challenge dominant urban development discourses that frame peri-urban agriculture as backward, demonstrating its role in strengthening social cohesion and environmental sustainability.

Dissanayake L., Dilini S. · Open Journal of Social Sciences · Sri Lanka (Kandy)

A questionnaire-based study in the Kandy municipal area found that urban home gardens significantly contributed to household food security and quality of life during COVID-19 lockdowns, with social well-being and mental health benefits highlighted across all satisfaction levels.

Yutaka Sho, James Setzler · · Rwanda

This chapter describes the work of General Architecture Collaborative (GAC), a nonprofit firm operating in Rwanda since 2008, which aims to make architecture accessible to traditionally excluded communities. GAC collaborates with local partners to invest in communities, exemplified by a health center that uses open spaces for community gardens and a demonstration kitchen for healthy eating workshops. This work highlights GAC's role as an interface within the international development industry's building culture.

Jeffrey Gilbert, Christina Chauvenet, Brett C. Sheppard, Molly De Marco · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Global

This study investigated leadership styles and volunteer engagement in community gardens through interviews with 13 garden managers and six focus groups with 48 volunteers. Findings revealed that managers struggled to recruit and retain volunteers capable of maintaining gardens. Garden managers exhibited either collaborative or directive leadership styles, both of which were acknowledged and appreciated by participants.

Ranka Junge, Nadine Antenen, Morris Villarroel, Tjaša Griessler Bulc, Andrej Ovca, Sarah Milliken · Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften digital collection (Zurich University of Applied Sciences) · Global

The Aquaponics Textbook for Higher Education accompanies the Aqu@teach Aquaponics Curriculum, intended for tertiary level teachers introducing basic aquaponics to students. The curriculum comprises 150 hours of student workload (5 ECTS) and is divided into 15 modules, covering topics such as aquaponic technology, aquaculture, hydroponics, and urban agriculture.

Gutiérrez Sánchez-Osorio, Maria Lúcia · · Global

This work explores the school garden as a program for environmental education in early childhood and primary stages. It outlines specific environmental activities integrated into various courses, using garden tasks as a central theme. Through these activities, students actively learn about current environmental problems and discover alternatives for sustainable development.