Starting in November of 2021, Union High collaborated with WMEAC and
Department of Public Works Kent County to host 3 vermicompost
workshops for a diverse group of 9th grade students in our Academic
Strategies course. Students built several vermicompost bins for the
classroom, learned about organic waste diversion from landfills, and
created signage to inform and persuade their peers about the bins.
Teacher Cory Sutherby, aka “The Sutherbeast” has created a Compost Rap
that we plan to incorporate into the educational materials for this
program each year. This year, Scholars in the Red Hawk Garden Club and
other 9th graders were able to take field trips to Frederick Meijer
Gardens, and the South Kent Landfill and the Kent County Recycling
Center. Covanta Waste to Energy provided a presentation for our
scholars at our school, and WMEAC presented with a Kahoot game. Given
the gracious opportunity to expand our project, we decided to connect
a project to our Biology curriculum and VR study on Sustainability
resulting in the planting of 34 trees which will sequester carbon from
the air, reducing the impact of climate change as well as provide
fruit to future scholars. With the support of Friends of GRParks, at
the end of May we are planting fruiting trees on the school property.
We currently have 2 neighborhood community members who are providing
their food waste towards our vermicompost and outdoor composting
systems which will provide for future nutrient needs in our school garden.
Fostering Lifelong Stewardship:
In addition to field trips to Frederick Meijer Gardens, the Kent
County Recycling Center, South Kent Landfill, the tree planting
events, and vermicompost workshops, scholars were able to engage in
local and global scale Biology lessons related to Sustainability. They
are able to fully explain the role of CO2 in climate change, human’s
role in producing CO2, and use academic vocabulary when describing how
CO2 is stored in the trunk of a tree.
Partners:
West Michigan Environmental Action Council, Kent County Department of
Public Works, Friends of Grand Rapids Parks
This year, Garden Club and Biology scholars were able to make
connections between curriculum and the outdoors in Michigan. Scholars
who had interest in the activities were invited from Shaw and
Gendrikov’s classes, and school-wide invites were sent out for the
field trips that we took part in this year. In addition to renting
gear from Thrive Outside, partnering with the Friends of GR Parks for
our tree planting event, visiting Sibley Elementary for a
seed-starting event, and planting native pollinator species from the
Kent Conservation District, we invited the DNR into our classes for a
Zoom lesson.
Fostering Lifelong Stewardship:
Scholars will have an increased awareness in their hearts and minds
of solutions to human impacts on the environment.
Partners:
Thrive Outside Gear Lending Library, Friends of Grand Rapids
Parks, Kent Conservation District, Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Scholars were able to use their voices to advocate for a schoolyard
transformation project that will increase native biodiversity and
provide outdoor classroom spaces that sustain us and the community.
Scholars engaged with their place in various ways, from attending a
field trip, participating in our Dig It Day, going on Hawk Walks, and
writing letters to local people who have power over our community and
ecosystems. There weren’t any changes from the last update, but
Chemistry, ELA, and US History did not have as much of a part in the
project this year due to a lack of common planning time for the
cross-curricular portion of the project.
Fostering Lifelong Stewardship:
Students have gained new insight into human impacts on ecosystems and
have begun to form more positive attitudes and behaviors towards their
school community and local environments as they have gained agency and
practiced using their voices to work towards solutions to local problems.
Partners:
Blandford Nature Center, DNR, Sally Triant @ Grow Wise Learning, Kent
Conservation District
Teachers:
Nicole Durso, 9th Grade Biology & 10th, 11th, & 12th Grade
Informal Garden Club; Kolton Shaw, 11th & 12th Grade, Financial
Literacy; Richard Angstman, 9th Grade US History; Laura Goldsmith,
10th Grade Chemistry; Cary Smith 9th Grade ELA
