Gardening While You Learn

As childhood obesity continues its upward trend nationally, schools and community organizations are partnering to find solutions. One such solution is the advent of school gardens to get students outside the classroom and into the great outdoors.

A University of Alabama psychologist, however, wanted more than anecdotal evidence of the various programs’ success. She’s seeking to determine exactly what kind of an impact these projects have on students, both from a health and educational perspective.

“Working with children in the counseling realm, I noticed how much more time they were spending inside with video games, televisions and computers,” says Dr. Caroline Boxmeyer, a UA psychologist. “I noticed the same thing with children with ADHD and behavioral difficulties who especially need to move and get outside and engage in more hands-on learning.”

Boxmeyer began researching hands-on, educational models that included outdoor nature components about the time the Druid City Garden Project organization was established. It was a perfect partnership.

The Tuscaloosa nonprofit uses school gardens as a teaching tool, connecting students to their food source and teaching important nutritional information. It’s an effort to halt the rising rates of childhood obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

The organization uses a curriculum that ties into the state educational standards for math, science and reading. Weekly, students work in the garden, as well as hold farm stands after school to sell the produce grown.

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'Front group': Coca-Cola funds scientists who stress exercise not diet to avoid obesity

Coca-Cola has pumped millions of dollars into the founding of a new nonprofit that claims there is "strong evidence" that lack of exercise is mostly to blame for obesity, not poor diet.

Coke, the leading producer of soda and sugary drinks across the world, has invested heavily in the Global Energy Balance Network, a nonprofit run by a handful of university scientists who were offered $4 million by Coke to fund various research projects, according to the New York Times.

Halting weight gain should be less about dieting and more about "maintaining an active lifestyle and eating more calories,"the group said on its website. The group's proof of this claim comes down to two research papers, both of which end with the same footnote: “The publication of this article was supported by The Coca-Cola Company.”

The organization calls itself “the voice of science” on its website. It ultimately bills itself as a "not for profit dedicated to reversing the obesity & chronic disease epidemics through healthy lifestyle behaviors."

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