Here are some excerpts from a neat article that I found this morning in the Georgetown Patch. Use the link at the bottom of this post to read the entire article.
Plans for a new wetland and gardens at Hardy Middle School will provide an outdoor classroom for students and could serve to better connect the community with the school. Through the District Department of the Environment, Hardy received a grant to build a new wetlands area, butterfly garden and vegetable garden in a marshy patch of grass next to the tennis courts.
According to Trinh Doan, an environmental protection specialist at DDOE, Hardy was one of five schools to receive a grant out of approximately 20 that applied.
The main goals for the new outdoor classroom are:
1. To give students a better sense of the natural world, to teach them to become environmental stewards
2. To open up the school to the community by inviting them to meet the students
3. To create an environmental certificate program earned by Hardy Students from sixth through eighth grade.
This project is “different from anything else I’ve seen” said Hill, so the DDOE team is “trying out some new things” to work with the existing natural environment.
The wetlands and the future gardens have been a true collaboration of local businesses and organizations. Garcia said the Butterfly Garden will be supported through the Monarch Sister Schools Program. DC Greens has also “given us quite a bit of support” said Garcia.
The wetlands will be planted during D.C. School Garden Week Sept. 26 through Oct. 1. The butterfly garden will be planted in the spring and the vegetable garden will be part of next fall’s lessons.
