What’s Right With Our Schools: Battlefield Academy Pollinator
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) – Battle Academy students are taking learning to new heights. Their rooftop garden is now home to a variety of native plants. That’s attracting birds, butterflies and other pollinators.
That’s an environmentally friendly example of what’s right with our schools.
Laura Robinson is a master gardener and parent volunteer at Battle Academy. She explains:
“We applied to the for the Native Plant Grant, through the Tennessee Wild Ones organization, and we initially are just planting a food garden. Out here, we have nine beds, which are dedicated to food production, that the kids get to come out and plant and harvest and use in the culinary lab. But we wanted to also provide a sensory garden. And so, in our sensory garden, that’s where we planted the majority of our native plants. And a sensory garden is really just a spot for kids to come out and see and touch and feel and smell and taste and do all the fun things that come with gardening.”
Jeremiah Simpson is a student at Battle Academy. He describes it as “a garden with vegetables in it and flowers. Pollinators can come and make them grow and make our favorite plants grow. ”
Robinson added that the rooftop garden “will really give them an opportunity to see kind of, how plants can interact with their environment around them.”
Cindy Kean teaches 5th grade at Battle Academy. Here is how she describes the garden:
“This is a space that we have to use for teaching. We have tables and space that we can actually come out and do projects with kids and learning.”
Savannah Hall is a student at Battle Academy. Her take on the garden:
“Butterflies are our pollinators, and they help us live and grow. And if we don’t have them, everything would be gone.”
According to Kean, “At Battle, we also are an Arts Integration School. So, we’ve been enhancing the garden space with student created art as well.”
Aleasha Henry teaches 2nd grade at Battle Academy. Henry explained some of the aspects of the rooftop garden.
“[This is a] Mosaic created by the 2nd grade class of ’24, and we’re going to continue this all down the wall. This is just a first class. And then next year, it’s going to be another collection. And the next year it’s just going to grow.”
So, this is an actual hashtag movement, it’s called kindness rocks. And they designed rocks with encouraging sayings on them; be kind, be you, be beautiful, you’ve got this, you can do this. and they designed these.”
Robinson explains why she thinks the garden is so important.
“You know I think there’s really a lot of magic that happens in the garden with kids. When they get to actually pick something from the garden and put it straight in their mouth, or they get to go rub a plant, or they get to see a bee land, on something, or they see the birds flying. There really is something magic that happens.”
Kean concludes with the way the project impacts the school and community.
“But when they come out here and they actually get that hands-on experience, it really just is eye opening for them. This is kind of a place where we are integrating all subject areas. The goal is really that they see these spaces that we’re creating at school. And that those can be spaces that they replicate in their own neighborhoods and communities. Food justice is real justice. And getting people access to both beauty and food are really important.”
