UHS campus green up 2014
University High School EcoBlazers
The University High School EcoBlazers complimented their Carmel Green Teen funded community garden created last year by creating and implementing a composting system and building a multi-purpose rain harvesting and outdoor classroom structure. The students are pictured here in the holes drilled for the rain catchment structure supports, with the new compost bins shown in the right corner. The students and staff will compost school lunchroom waste for use in the community garden, and the rain barrels adjacent to the new structure will provide needed water for their teaching garden.
University High School students, staff, and families started off the spring planting season by cleaning up the garden beds created last year and transplanting the vegetable starts the students began from seed in biology lab classes. These included potatoes, kale, Swiss chard, lettuce, radishes, and strawberry plants.
Student Eco-blazers were pleasantly surprised when more volunteers came to their first garden workshop than expected – seventeen students plus a few younger siblings, five faculty/staff members, and two parents.
Students and family members attended several work days, using their combined skill to complete many needed tasks, like building potato cages, as shown above.
In late May, the UHS EcoBlazers Club students held a school-wide assembly to show all students, faculty, and staff the designs and intent for the rain catchment and outdoor classroom structure to be built at the garden. One student envisioned, “UHS will not only stay succinct with the rest of the world in regards to growing sustainability concerns, but we will blaze the trail and lead the way as the rest of the world follows.”
The students were involved in as many aspects of the construction of the rain catchment structure as possible. Cement was poured into the footers, and the students learned how complex and exact building a real structure can be.
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Butler University Biology professor Andrew Mr. Stoehr is working with the UHS students in the EcoBlazers Club to collect and identify specimens of the Cabbage White butterfly for his studies.
Teachers at University High School used each project as a unique hands-on teaching opportunity for the students involved. Basic instructions on how the students created compost bins from easily obtainable free wooden pallets is described here.
It was not easy for the students to assemble the giant cafeteria-sized compost tumbler which arrived in pieces in the mail. However, their joy was unfettered upon completion of the work.
The students learned that the plan for the structure would need approval by UHS administration and a City of Carmel building permit. After obtaining these permissions, they could begin drilling holes for the footers of the structure.
We congratulate University High School senior Elizabeth Orians, shown with the shovel, for her commitment to the environment and for drawing up the plans for the rain catchment outdoor classroom structure as part of her senior thesis.
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The final rain catchment and outdoor classroom structure is finished. Congratulations UHS EcoBlazers for a job well done.