In a project to explore aspects of natural science while promoting health, a group of about 16 sixth-grade students at Warrensburg Elementary School have been building greenhouses on wheels to raise vegetables year-round.
The students have collaborated in devising and developing the project, designing the greenhouse and building it — as an offshoot of the school’s Science-Technology-Engineering-Math (STEM) program.
Advisers to the group are sixth-grade teachers Chris Brown and Christene Baker.
Sixth-grader Keith Sonley described how he and his classmates made their decision.
“We thought about what we could do for our school that we all need, so we thought of a portable greenhouse,” he said, noting that the vegetables grown in the greenhouse would provide healthy snacks for students.
Brown explained that the sixth-graders — chosen to tackle extra challenges through the school’s “What I Need” group — subsequently drew their concepts of a greenhouse. Together, they figured out what the appropriate size would be — so it could roll in and out of the school’s utility garage, yet provide adequate room to grow plants, he said.
