From the food on your plate to the clothes on your back, agriculture is the backbone of everything we consume. In recent years, with more kids spending time on iPads than making mud pies, there is a serious lack of connection between children and the world of agriculture.
Junior Master Gardener, or JMG, is an international program that has a cooperative through the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension network. The goal of the program is to educate and excite youth about the environment, nutrition, gardening and exercise.
AgriLife Extension Program Specialist Randy Seagraves works as the curriculum coordinator of the international Junior Master Gardener Program. He says his initial leap from education to AgriLife began because he was able to work alongside Senior Program Specialist Lisa Whittlesey while she taught horticulture at a women's federal prison, who was the starting point of the program, and says he was lucky to be part of the team as the project was beginning.
“My role is relying on my background experience and expertise and knowing how to present things or developing appropriate [education] to kids of different ages,” Randy says. “This includes the development of the content and curriculum that supports the JMG program.”
AgriLife Multimedia Project Specialist Daniel Sheridan got the opportunity to film several Junior Master Gardener lessons over a four week period. The lessons he filmed were a part of the Learn, Grow, Eat & Go curriculum, which covers each aspect of importance for the JMG program. The lessons included power smoothies, where several of the kids tried new fruits and veggies, and Finding a Garden Home, where the class recalled what a plant needs to grow and planted their own seeds.
“The first day I was there, and we pulled out the cameras and everything, the kids immediately ran up to the cameras and were making silly faces,” Daniel says. “It was funny watching, they had a couple of different gardening songs. They would take songs and change the lyrics to make them gardening versions, they had dances for them and everything."
One activity included looking at root systems, while another had kids buzzing around to different flowers for exercise. Since the lessons vary in activity level and are created to be entertaining, Daniel says the kids were just as excited on week one as they were on week four.
The reach of the program goes further than learning about plants, Randy says. The program also educates on the importance of gardening and nutrition.
“It impacts kids on a different level,” Randy says. “One thing that we find out in our world is that people who have an affinity for gardening that are my age and older, they have some firsthand experience of connecting to that world of agriculture from gardens or with a family member.” With agriculture being a leading industry in Texas, it’s important to keep younger generations interested. The courses are designed to allow fun and tactile lessons in nutrition, gardening and exercise in different ways. The program has recently gone international, but Randy says he is grateful he gets to do a lot of work locally.
“What's different now is if we do teacher training programs, and we have those teachers that are [in their] 20s and 30s, more often than not, they have zero experience gardening,” Randy says. “We feel like we're having kids losing that connection to the importance of agriculture, of where their food comes from."
Sam Craft/Texas A&M AgriLife Marketing & Communications Sam Craft/Texas A&M AgriLife Marketing and Communications
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Junior Master Gardener National Leader Training Conference on Feb. 23, 2022 in College Station, Texas. (Sam Craft/Texas A&M AgriLife Marketing and Communications)
A 2000 study through the Texas A&M University showed that hands-on curriculum improved attitudes toward fruits and vegetables in third and fifth graders. As a part of the curriculum in the Junior Master Gardener program, Daniel was able to watch the kids whiles they made their power smoothies and garden salads. They were all so excited to try new things and help out with the lessons, he says.
"They were so interested and willing to try," Daniel says. "It didn't seem like any of them are very picky, they were just ready to go. The whole things seems designed to make sure that kids get engaged."
In the lesson videos, the enthusiasm is obvious as children can be heard constantly asking if they can help water the newly planted seeds or if they can measure out the right amount of spinach for smoothies. Randy, who previously worked as a teacher, says that his current role with JMG allows him to feel as if he still gets to be a part of educating the youth.
“From a teaching perspective, there's so much you can teach in a very relevant, hands-on way on gardening,” Randy says. “Connecting kids back to what agriculture is: producing foods and clothing and the whole thing.”
During the four weeks, the kids learned to name each part of a flower, how bees pollinate and everything a plant needs to grow while they planted their own seeds. The variety of lessons allows children to actively learn and gain new experiences.
“I'm not around many 4 to 5 year olds, so I [thought] some of the material might go over their head, but it really didn't,” says Daniel. “They were able to pick up on everything that was being given to them.”
The program deals with children from pre-K all the way to adults like teachers, and Randy says they have even started delving into lessons for adults with special needs. Because of the far-reaching importance of agriculture, Randy says schools involved with JMG get to bring together kids of all ages and skill levels for their gardening efforts.
"We get to grow the next generation of gardeners," Randy says. "We tell teachers 'you're gonna be the person who made the initial introduction' so it's kind of an honor to be in that role. It's empowering for teachers to realize they get to be the ones to do that."
Those interested can also contact their local extension office to ask about volunteer opportunities or getting the program started in their local schools.
"You can't get up in the morning and take a breathe or eat a meal, or put on clothes without having direct connection to the world and agriculture," Randy says. "And so we're making those connections again with our kids and without that, we're losing that generation."
For more information on Junior Master Gardener, visit jmgkids.us.
