Project Description: For the outdoor classroom portion of this project, students first
identified areas on campus they felt would make good locations for
core teachers to take their students to learn. These outdoor
classrooms needed work—students created trails, signs, seating areas,
and cleared invasive and dead plants from the area. In an effort to
inform teachers, students created documents to pitch the classrooms.
For the second portion of the project, students created an
overwintering bird habitat by identifying an an area of mowed turf
grass outside the classroom that could be repurposed to give some
birds food, water, and shelter in the winter. Their goal was to lessen
the mowing area on the CMS campus and to give students a view from the
indoors they can learn from throughout the year.
Fostering Lifelong Stewardship: Students learned that through hard work, they can restore habitat
that benefits wildlife and themselves.
Partners: Grand Rapids Jr. Audubon Club, Brett Black
Teachers: 1
Students: 115
Funder: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Project Description: Students in Honors Foundations of Science worked with the Natural
Expressions classes to assess the property at Central Middle School
for nonpoint source pollution issues. Students repurposed two
sites of turf grass by planting native plants to increase stormwater
infiltration and stop runoff from the sidewalk and driveway. In this
way, they reduced pollution in the Grand River Watershed.
Fostering Lifelong Stewardship: The students viewed landscaping practices along shorelines and
developed their voice regarding future projects and practices. The
students now understand the importance of native plants and have the
knowledge to incorporate them at their current homes and potentially
their future homes.
Partners: Ada Township Parks, Georgia Donovan
Teachers: 2
Students: 135
Funder: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through the Michigan
Department of Environmental Quality
Project Description: The purpose of this project was to show students the connection
between the biodiversity that occurs with native plants and natural
shoreline buffer zones and the health of their local watershed.
Students identified and collected native seeds from plants at Central
Middle School (CMS) and spread the seeds in the CMS east prairie. They
also created seed balls, started some plants from seed, and cold
stratified seeds. These were planted on campus in the east prairie and
given to local landowners.
Students also conducted chemical and macroinvertebrate sampling in
the campus pond, stream and nearby Paradise Lake to evaluate nonpoint
source pollution impacts. Students explored the importance of natural
shoreline buffer zones and the elements of an effective buffer for
reducing NPS pollution through the creation of shoreline plans for
homeowners on Paradise Lake using best management practices. The goals
was to plan a possible shoreline for a house or two on Paradise Lake.
Students would then approach the homeowner to educate them about
healthy shoreline management and show them what their shoreline could
look like to help reduce NPS pollution and improve lake water quality.
Students also used art to show the interconnectedness of the wetland
ecosystem. Students explored the role of wetlands in natural
ecological cycles as well as how wetlands work as a buffer zone for
the natural waterway of lake or river and how healthy wetlands help
mitigate nonpoint source pollution. In the end, students understood
the need to reduce nonpoint source pollution and know small steps that
can be taken to achieve this goal.
Fostering Lifelong Stewardship: Students worked towards the goal to become educated adults and
homeowners in regards to healthy watersheds and best practices in land
and water management.
Partners: Ada Parks, Georgia Donovan, Megan Lendman
Teachers: 2
Students: 225
Funder: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through the Michigan
Department of Environmental Quality
Project Description: Students created a plan to increase the health of the school
woodlands, which included eradicating invasive species and planting
native woodland plant areas within the forest. They chose plants for
purchase, pulled garlic mustard and oriental bittersweet, created
signs, and installed the native plants. They also replanted a small
area in the parking lot that was previously created to reduce
stormwater runoff. The original plants died, so we tried something
different in hopes of success.
Our school collaborated with the Adacroft neighborhood association to
pull garlic mustard throughout the wooded commons area of the
neighborhood. All seventh grade science classes participated in
pulling garlic mustard there. Natural Expressions students created a
flyer about the plant and why it should be eradicated, and then they
distributed flyers throughout the neighborhood while science students
worked in the woods.
Fostering Lifelong Stewardship: Students will become educated adults and homeowners as a result
of learning about healthy watersheds and best practices in land management.
Partners: Adacroft Neighborhood Association, Wild Birds Unlimited, Kent
Conservation District
Teachers: 2
Students: 390
Funder: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through the Michigan
Department of Environmental Quality
Project Description: It’s important to recognize the environmental impacts we make on
our property, our watershed, and those downstream of us. CMS reached
out to our neighbors to the north (Amway) to see how they’ve
instituted best practices in their business and our neighbors to the
west (Paradise Lake Association) to put stewardship into practice. By
the end of the year, students were able to articulate the positive and
negative impacts they have on their place. They considered all the
factors in water quality on campus runoff beginning in a detention
pond at Central Middle that then flows to Paradise Lake.
The Environmental Health Team at Amway collaborated with Natural
Expressions classes on the subjects of waste, alternative energy,
stormwater runoff, and green space. We also connected with an educator
from the Kent County Dept. of Public Works, who spoke to Natural
Expressions students about waste, landfills, recycling, etc. and to
explain the Kent County goal to reduce landfill trash by 20% in 2020
and 90% in 2030.
We were able to connect with a homeowner along Paradise Lake to
determine the health of the waterbody, where the rain falls on her
property, and how she might use best-management practices to
positively impact the water’s health.
Students shared their knowledge of healthy watersheds/ecosystems,
native trees, and invasive forest organisms with 3rd graders from Ada Elementary.
Finally, CMS Groundswell students shared their knowledge of
invasive garlic mustard and removal practices with the rest of the
student body and the community in Adacroft neighborhood before and
during an invasive plant pulling event in the woodland “commons” area
of Adacroft. They also pulled garlic mustard on our campus.
Fostering Lifelong Stewardship: Students will understand the impact humans have on their
watershed. By engaging in rainscaping site assessments they developed
skills they can take with them in the future to their homes, cottages,
etc. They also know the benefits of native plants on our environment
and they know how to identify key invasive ones. They understand how
devastating the invasive plants can be on the land. Over the course of
the semester, students experienced many different stewardship
practices they can build on throughout their lives.
Partners: Amway, Paradise Lake homeowner, Kent County Department of Public
Works, Adacroft Neighborhood Association
Teachers: 3
Students: 370
Funder: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
CMS students built bridges on land and within neighboring
communities. We recognized three issues: an unhealthy forest,
neighborhood associations with invasive plant issues, and increased
landfill dumpster use.
Picking up from last year, students continued creating trails and
removing invasive plants in the south woods. Students recognized the
many species of wildlife that call CMS their home and focused on
increasing wildlife habitat for birds, herps, and mammals. They did
this throughout the campus by planting native plants, building and
installing bird nesting boxes, and putting out plywood and aluminum
“cover boards'' to attract and document herps on campus.
First semester students learned about issues around waste management,
particularly in regards to our school lunches from new Covid-required
containers, encouraging others to bring zero waste lunches and to
recycle what they could from our cafeteria lunches. They added five
recycling bins in the hallways, so students have an option to recycle
where there used to be only a landfill bin. We started a new
relationship with Ada Place Condos Neighborhood Association where all
7th grade science students pulled garlic mustard and other
invasive species in the woodlands there and at school.
In both semesters Natural Expressions learned about Oriental
bittersweet, since it is a concern in our community. They created
videos to encourage others to identify and eradicate this tenacious
plant. During 2nd semester they combined with the art
classes for an invasive species forest weaving unit, where they
removed bittersweet and created weavings and artists’ statements to
leave an impact on campus and the community.
Fostering Lifelong Stewardship
Students have many experiences in the natural world on
campus to enjoy themselves and learn first hand about stewardship
opportunities. The combination is such that students see a direct
impact on a place where they are making memories and as such this
encourages lifelong stewardship.
Partners:
John Ball Park, Revery, Ada Place Condos Neighborhood Association
For this project, [my] Senior Composition students researched food
sovereignty and food justice issues. They [looked] at places in the
Grand Rapids area that focus on providing more equity and access to
food. As a final product, they create[d] written portfolio that
synthesized their research and field work that could be used by
community members to find information and sources for food justice.
Fostering Lifelong Stewardship:
Few of the students had background in this topic, and as privileged
students, they were not aware that food can be challenging for people
to access. This project educated them about how a business can be
for-profit and still have a service component and mission. It also
helped students think more critically about where our food comes from
and why certain communities have greater access to it while others do not.
