STEM stems garden

STEM Academy STEMS Garden Project:

STEM Academy is an urban school located in East Orange, New Jersey. Recently, the school has developed a gardening project at the school.  Our school was originally named Clifford J Scott after the late East Orange Superintendent.  The high school was opened in 1936 and has colonial style architecture. Within the building are 3 atrium with outdoor space that has not been unutilized.  Later, the school changed names and become Campus 9 High School a high school for only ninth grade students. Then in 2011 the school was again renamed to STEM Academy High School. STEM Academy was the vision of our current superintendent, Dr. Gloria C. Scott.  STEM Academy is a magnet school in the district where students need to pass certain eligibility criteria to become a student. Students need high NJ ASK scores and a letter of recommendation from a teacher.  Our public school was created for students who exhibit interest in the STEM fields.  STEM Academy currently has a little over 500 students enrolled with the following demographics; 96.9% African American, 2.7 %Hispanic, and .4% Asian.  There are 73.6% of the students are considered economically disadvantaged with 74 % receiving a free or reduced lunch.  We are a raising school with great promise.  Our school has been recognized on the state level and was recently named by News Week one of New Jersey’s Best Schools for 2015. In 2014 the entire class scored proficient in the HSPA language Arts assessment.

This year with the help of two teachers, Ms. Taylor and Ms. Bryant we have revitalized one unutilized atrium space and created a school garden. This project has brought new life to the school and has given students exposure to gardening and its importance to the environment.  Living in an urban area there is limited free space.  Being that the school had the space, but did not use it seemed wasteful.  Based on student interest and teacher support our small garden was created with hard work and no budget.

Being that this was the first year of starting the garden we started small.  We planted flowers, tomatoes, peppers (bell and hot spicy), green beans, eggplant, okra, collard greens, broccoli, corn, beets, zucchini, strawberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, and scallions. We were beginners and had a lot to learn as we faced unforeseen and unknown challenges from nature, like certain bugs and insects. The cabbage worms that come from an innocent white moth that looks like a butterfly tried to destroy our greens, mold appearing on the leaves of our cantaloupe, and a sudden emergence of blossom end rot on a couple of our tomatoes. But we learned how to fight off head on with organic insecticidal soaps, and other types of organic ingredients. There was no funding to support this project. Our two teacher advisers donated all of the seedling plants we harvested. Some of the equipment was borrowed from teachers’ homes, and some of the equipment we needed was purchased with advisers also freely, and selflessly donate their time to the project on our behalf since this is not a funded school club. Basically, this was a grassroots project to revive lost land and create something new and viable for the school. We the students are committed to this project and have the backing and support from our teacher advisers. Many students do not have get a lot of outdoor exposure. Studies show it is vital for children’s health and development to have regular access to natural settings, but this is extremely challenging for students in an urban locations.