Greening Urban Schools - A Joint Project of Birmingham-Southern College, Woodlawn High School, and Cornerstone School

Introduction

Birmingham-Southern College students propose the establishment of an urban garden/environmental classroom to produce basil for pesto and a native plants garden at a city high school and a second urban garden at a nearby elementary school.  Woodlawn High School and Cornerstone Elementary School are proximate to the Woodlawn EcoScape, a garden built and maintained by BSC students and community members in an abandoned city lot.

In January Birmingham-Southern College students began tutoring students at Woodlawn High School for the high school exit exam, advising seniors on college applications, and improving the school’s physical environment by supplying paint for student-designed murals. These BSC students propose to create an urban garden with the help of Woodlawn students that would be used as an environmental classroom for biology and ecology classes as well as a marketing project for Junior ROTC and/or band students. The urban garden will grow and harvest basil that will be made into pesto. JROTC and/or band students at Woodlawn High School will package and sell the pesto to local restaurants and the City’s Saturday Farmer Market.  Students from the college and the high school will be involved in planning, planting, harvesting, and maintaining this garden. 

In addition to the basil garden, native trees and shrubs will be planted in an open area at the front of Woodlawn High School.  The xeriscape garden will provide an outdoor classroom for ecology students to learn about the value of native plants.  It will also create an attractive space for students on a campus which is otherwise bare of landscaping and shade.

Native plants will also be purchased for Cornerstone Elementary School which is a block away from Woodlawn High School and adjoins the Woodlawn Ecoscape.  The science coordinator and her students at Cornerstone School will assist BSC students in the design of two plots to be tended, in part, by the Cornerstone students and enjoyed by those who pass by.  

Project Description

Three BSC first-year students, Lisa Glenn, Megan White, and Webb Lyons will coordinate the Woodlawn High School urban garden project.  Mrs. Jessie Sims, the ecology teacher at Woodlawn High School, will be the sponsor of the project. Mr. Jeff Meadows, the AP social studies teacher, will assist her. Students will be recruited from Woodlawn’s JROTC program to produce and market the pesto. The native plants garden will be located in front of the high school, and Mrs. Sims will assist with the selection of the trees and shrubs. Roald Hazelhoff, director of the BSC Southern Environmental Center, will advise regarding soil, placement of plants, and maintenance.  

The site for the basil garden is fenced and adjoins the JROTC building. Basil will be interplanted with the environmental classroom plot, maintained by college and high school students, and watered regularly in a drip fashion.  Basil will be planted before the end of April, and the JROTC and/or band will harvest the basil and make it into pesto to sell to local businesses. A local chef from the restaurant Homewood Gourmet will provide his irresistible recipe for pesto and teach initial class on the preparation of pesto. Sales from the pesto will provide a good fundraiser for the JROTC and/or band, programs which have suffered budget cutbacks. A drip irrigation system will be established to water the plants during an Alabama summer. In the case that the garden at Woodlawn High School is not ready as of this spring, the first year’s basil crop will be planted at the already existing Woodlawn EcoScape. The pesto will be packaged and sold fresh during the summer.

The environmental classroom at the high school will include native plants, shrubs, and trees with plaques stating the scientific names. This area will have pathways so that students can walk through and see different varieties of plants. There will be benches throughout the area produced by the woodshop class and donated to the garden. It is in this area that Mrs. Sims will teach her students about the life of native plants.

This fall there will be a planting kick-off for preparing the soil and planting the native plants. The entire school will be notified, although the ecology class, BSC students JROTC, and/or band will be those primarily involved. The project will begin with soil preparation and planting will commence when it is time for fall plants to be planted. 

At the Cornerstone School, the science coordinator, Mrs. Lisa Fulbright, will work with BSC student and ACS intern, Mary Helen Ferguson, to determine which plants to select that are hardy and sustainable. Children will have the opportunity to begin seedlings in their classrooms and observe the growing process. 

During the summer, an intern from BSC and Woodlawn High School will be hired in order to maintain and water the gardens and supervise the pesto production while Woodlawn students are away. They will both be compensated for their work.

Birmingham-Southern College will assist with the Greening an Urban High School project by providing tools, advice, community connections, and working closely with the BSC students.  Roald Hazelhoff, Campus as a Lab for Sustainability Alliance co-director, works on a regular basis at the Woodlawn Ecoscape and will provide advice on native plants and basil production. The College is also able to obtain native plants at a discounted price. Jeanne Jackson, Faculty Fellow and co-director of the CLS Alliance, will work closely with the student representatives and student interns to ensure the success of the basil and native planting projects.

Evaluation and Dissemination

The Woodlawn High School basil project will be evaluated after the growing season in October 2003, and a paper describing the results will be presented to other ACS institutions at the fall meeting. The two native plants gardens at Woodlawn and Cornerstone Elementary School will be evaluated in June 2004. Photos of the gardens and the final pesto product and information about various native plants will be posted on the ACS website

Budget
*Materials for the basil plot, including compost, basil plants, and drip irrigation system $400
*2 food processors to make pesto and initial containers for fresh pesto $400
*Native plants for Woodlawn High School and Cornerstone Elementary School, including trees and shrubs $1200
*Summer stipends for a BSC student and a Woodlawn High School student to maintain plants, harvest basil, and supervise production of pesto $1400

TOTAL   $3400

Submitted by:
Mary Helen Ferguson and Lisa Glenn