US (NM): Special needs students rehab campus greenhouse
Now 17, Blair said he suffered low and failing grades in his classes at Carlsbad High School during the early months of his first year.
Today he tasks himself with building the tables and infrastructure needed to support the plants that will occupy the greenhouse in the coming months.
The biggest challenge of working at the greenhouse, Blair said, is getting all his classmates to work together.
Some have only mild impairments, while others are non-verbal and profoundly impaired.
Mainstream students from the school’s agriculture classes help as well, arranging the materials in preparation for a goal of 700 tomato plants to fill about 3,000 square feet in the greenhouse.
And the greenhouse could also contain a lesson for everyone.
Two-year special education teacher Ashley Granger said horticulture can supplement many other classes and topics of study.
She said students learn math skills by measuring soil and other materials, science by studying the plants’ growth, and even English for students whose first reading experience could be the instructions or labels.
Teachers even intend to use the tomatoes and herbs grown in the greenhouse to make salsa, incorporating culinary arts.
Read more at Current-Argus (Adrian C Hedden)