Specialty Crop

Reflect back on that day you entered a classroom to take the ACT test for college admission. Did you feel a tinge of anxiety? Were your heart rate and blood pressure a bit elevated? If so, were there things you could do to calm yourself?

Jules Craft, a science instructor in Sheridan’s alternative high school, explorers questions like that with her students as she conducts experiments with them while at the same time teaching life skills. Her horticulture classes are an important part of her teaching.

One day, she informed her students they would be taking an ACT practice test. She immediately sensed heightened stress levels as each student received a copy of the test. Upon completion, school staff took the blood pressure and heart rate of each student as part of an experiment. And then everyone went to the school garden, where they spent quiet time working the soil and planting seeds. Once again, their BP and pulse were checked.

“The students, as a whole, saw a marked difference in their numbers,” Ms. Craft says. “Then we talked about the health benefits of such activities as gardening, and also the benefits of eating a healthy diet, including fresh produce.”

She adds: “The students in the horticulture class learn many aspects of produce production, from soil preparation to seeding to caring for plants and then harvesting. Working with our food service staff, they make salads with the produce they grow, which is really a cool thing.”

Each student gets to choose an individual project related to horticulture. One student, for example, spent time helping at Oyster Mountain Mushrooms, others helped plant a butterfly garden, and some assisted at community gardens. The students also work together to sell vegetable starts and native plants each spring, with proceeds going back to the horticulture program.

In 2024, a geodesic greenhouse was constructed at the school, and it became operational in 2025.