Mid-Prairie Community School District receives grant to revamp greenhouse and outdoor classroom

WELLMAN - With help from a Washington County Riverboat Foundation Grant, students in the Mid-Prairie Community School District will soon get to use their greenhouse and outdoor classroom.

On Wednesday, May 15, the district was awarded $34,865 to be split between the two projects for the purpose of revamping the spaces. Mid-Prairie High School has a greenhouse that was built in the late ‘90s and has been used by students to begin growing for the school garden. However, the glazing on the roof needs to be replaced in order for proper light to shine through. Because of this, the greenhouse has not been used to its full potential in a few years.

Although housed at the high school, the greenhouse is also used by the elementary students who plant seeds and leave them in the greenhouse during winter. Glenda Seward, learning design coach for Mid-Prairie High School and Mid-Prairie West Elementary, said this collaboration poses an excellent opportunity for students of different ages to work together.

'I think it's a great opportunity for role modeling. It helps the elementary kids (because) we aren't going to be able to do much growing at the elementary without the greenhouse, and to have the FFA kids coming down and supporting that learning, it's also good for the high school kids.”

She said the high-schoolers also get an education not only from an agricultural standpoint, but from a leadership standpoint as well.

'I think anytime that you teach and guide someone else through a process, you understand that better,” she said. 'It gives them the opportunity to not only do the thing, but to teach it and to guide children through it.”

For high school students who complete the growing process in the greenhouse, they will have the opportunity to take the produce they have grown to the fair, if they choose. For the elementary students, they will take the plants back to their school garden to plant in the ground.

In July, Mid-Prairie West Elementary received a mini-grant to build raised garden beds, which will house the plants from the greenhouse. Adjacent to the plots is an outdoor classroom built in the mid-'90s designed for outdoor learning.

With the help of the grant, the classroom will receive new windows, doors, gutters, a rain water collection system, siding, electricity and heating and cooling. Currently, the classroom is being used for storage, but will eventually be used for learning.

Katelyn Hammen, a third-grade teacher at Mid-Prairie West Elementary, said she was excited for the opportunity to open the classroom and get students inside to learn because it offers them an opportunity they do not get in a traditional classroom.

She said so far, the students have been very involved with the school garden and designed the layout as well as helped build the beds, spread dirt and mulch and cultivate.

Mo Gingerich, a fourth-grade teacher at Mid-Prairie West Elementary, said places such as the school garden and outdoor classroom, where students can learn, helps them understand the concepts they are learning.

'Anytime we can get them outside and moving and actually involved in the process to actually take ownership of their learning, the better,” she said.