Tower Garden leads to an exciting second semester

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The current Tower Garden in the Botany class currently at Lincoln High. Photo Courtesy of Jason States.

By Porshe Miller

Teaching kids about plants that will help with the environment is something that many students don’t get to do. But, students in a new Botany Class implemented at Lincoln High this year is doing just that for Riley Elementary students. Helping teach children how to understand plants, students from Lincoln high have a Tower Garden they are using to learn more for themselves and then teach others.

A Tower Garden is a vertical tube that allows plants to grow without soil and allows you to grow up to 20 vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers in less than three square feet—indoors or out. This helps plants to grow faster, healthier and use less water than if the plant were in soil, but it does even more than just those things.

“A lot of people believe that plants get most of the nutrients they need from soil.  That is not true. They do get a very small amount of nutrients, but most of what they need comes from the air around them, the carbon dioxide.  Since the Tower Garden has no soil it does a good job of showing this fact. The Tower Garden also grows plants rather quickly compared to using just soil.  We haven’t got to flower reproduction yet but I want to be able to use the vegetables and flowers as a means for students to learn how pollination works as we have to pollinate the plants since we are indoors,” States expressed.

The Botany Tower garden class teaching students at Riley Elementary School. Photo courtesy of Jason States.

There is one Tower Garden running right now at Lincoln High that has vegetables and another one running soon that will have flowers. The elementary school currently doesn’t have a tower garden, but hoping to get one in the following years. The Generation Green club also have their own Tower Garden with vegetables as well. At the end of the project students will be able to have a snack that they personally grew.

“I want to give my students a service learning experience by working with an elementary school as well as help them learn about plant structure and growth,” States commented.

The tower garden became fully funded on November 1, 2017 by a go fund me account that States created so that this class could happen.

“I believe that by having this experience with working at Riley Elementary my students will feel the reward that we feel when we are teaching. This may make students realize they want to become teachers,” States added.

” The class is a science class, but it is easy to understand and apply, which is why I think it is so much fun. We also get to use our garden to teach kindergartners which is something that I really feel accomplished about,” Lincoln High senior Kyra Beuning said.

Now students can teach future generations  about plants and the many benefits that come with knowledge of knowing what they can do.