Elm St Middle School

In our urban community many residents are unable to plant a garden due to contaminated soil. Our school courtyards are no exception. Our goal is to create an alternative urban garden utilizing hydroponics, an indoor grow lab, and vertical beds. The current garden area is comprised of flower gardens only due to the lead content of the soil. It is our hope that exposing our students to alternatives for edible gardening will enable them to spread these techniques out into their community. Our seventh grade students study ecology and botany in Science and read "The Omnivore's Dilemma" in Literacy. The ability to experiment with growing techniques in a hands on situation would be invaluable. In the future we hope to secure funds from other grant opportunities to build a green house in our existing interior courtyards, allowing us to further extend our growing season within the school year.