Eating raw corn straight from the garden, saving egg-bound chickens and teaching a grandmother how to propagate strawberries are hardly the usual activities of a typical teenager.
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But thanks to Merici College's kitchen garden and focus on sustainability they're all pursuits the students take in their stride.
In recent years, gardens have become a popular addition to many schools to encourage children to eat healthier, and now joint research the Australian Catholic University (ACU) and the University of Texas is backing the claims.
Children involved with school gardens eat more fruit and vegetables and are more adventurous with the variety they are willing to taste and cook, the research found.
The gardens also improve students' behaviour at home and in the classroom.
Merici opened its vegetable garden and chicken pen in a disused basketball court in 2011 to use food scraps from the canteen as compost.
Now the 80-square-metre garden supplies the canteen with food and last year produced $7500 worth of vegetables and eggs and more than $2000 from the sale of tomato seedlings with everything propagated from seeds in an onsite greenhouse.
Sustainability teacher Fiona Buining said she had seen students' attitudes towards vegetables change and canteen staff had noticed students becoming more adventurous with what they ate.
"Students will eat things straight from the garden," she said.
"There was a girl yesterday who ate a green capsicum and I was really surprised because she's not the sort of person who would usually do that and she said it was really nice.
"I like to think we're growing the growers."
For Year 9 students Maisey Higgisson Guthridge and Zoe Buckley, working in the school's garden is a relaxing way of practical learning.
"I'm not that sporty so it's a way for me to get more exercise without trying," Maisey said.
"It helps my health, just being outside when I'm having a bad day. It's relaxing, I just feel calmer afterwards."
Classmate Zoe agrees.
"It has made me a little bit more adventurous with what I'm trying," she said.
"It's good to be able to help the school; all our vegies go to the canteen."
Maisey said she was a fussy eater when she was younger, but the school's garden and her family's vegetable patch had opened her eyes to the process of growing food.
"I'm more encouraged to eat what I've grown myself rather than getting it from a supermarket," she said.
The joint research was based on 13 school garden programs in Australia and the United States for children ranging from kindergarten to Year 8.
Of the 11 programs that examined dietary intake, six found that the program resulted in increased vegetable intake, whereas four showed no effect.
Seven of the eight studies that measured the children's preference found the programs resulted in increased preference for vegetables.
The studies also found that children involved in the programs had an improved attitude towards fruit and vegetables, could easily identify them and were more likely to taste and prepare or cook fruit and vegetables.
ACU co-author associate professor Shawn Somerset said the research proved school gardens had positive implications for sustainability, as well as children's health.
But further research was needed to understand how to achieve long-term improvements in dietary behaviours and how to sustain and develop the programs in schools.
