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Although there are institutional barriers to interdisciplinary teaching in higher education, students report higher levels of cognitive though and greater knowledge of subject matter when they learn in interdisciplinary ways. This paper highlights interdepartmental collaboration for developing an undergraduate course integrating three concepts: child development, gardening, and nutrition. The course design is meant to prepare undergraduates for developmentally appropriate strategies to educate preschoolers on well-being through use of garden with edible crops. Forty-five students from various majors enrolled in the course over a 2.5-year period. Experiential learning activities included gardening activities at the University Child Development Laboratory along with tours of local farmers’ markets, the University Farm, and the Children’s Museum Edible Schoolyard. In reflective journaling, students reported on knowledge they gained in the three areas as a result of experiential gardening activities with preschoolers. The paper concludes with discussion implications of interdisciplinary course development among family science researchers and the role of gardening education in teaching health and well-being to preschoolers. |
