Garden at Maranatha Christian Academy Becomes Teaching Tool

Teachers at Maranatha Christian Academy in Brooklyn Park use their vegetable garden as a tool for learning. The school also got a grant for an environmentally-friendly watering system.

The Maranatha Christian Academy garden looks like a fall postcard. There are pumpkins and colorful gourds throughout the plot that serves as an outdoor learning space.

Stacy Huether, the media and maker director at MCA, gave us a tour. Huether says this year teachers did the planting, because of COVID-19, but students are back in class using the space to learn.

“Either I saved them from a previous pumpkin or I brought them,” explained Huether. “It was fun for the kids to see.”

Students can obviously use the space for science, but Huether says teachers also use the space for subjects like  math and art.

“We have all subjects that come out here,” said Huether. “Our art teachers will bring out their students to do drawings. They’ll sit and focus on a leaf and do a leaf sketch.”

In learning environments that increasingly involving screens, Huether says it’s refreshing to bring the students outside.

“For them to come out here to be in the outdoors and not to be in front of a computer or a TV screen… they are out in God’s world just experiencing how things grow,” said Huether.

This is Maranatha’s fifth year for the garden.

Maranatha Christian Academy

Brooklyn Park

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