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A new idea for education is blooming for students in Salt Lake City. Today, the Salt Lake School District showed off a new classroom, and it's unlike any other in the district.
Education is growth, and students at Escalante Elementary School have a new "living classroom," a greenhouse in which they can watch plants grow as their knowledge flourishes.
This greenhouse is one of 12 the district will build, thanks to an $83,000 grant from Lowe's.
"Somebody asked me earlier, ‘Why Escalante? Why now?' It's just an extension, folks, of where we've been and where we want to go in the future," said Escalante Principal Richard Aslett.
Science is the focus at Escalante. For a majority of the students, English is their second language, so science works as a unifying force.
All students will use the greenhouse. They'll grow vegetables and flowers, sample air, test soil and study watering cycles.
"[It's] being able to understand how the whole ecosystem works, and then being able to make that not only sustainable, but better and deeper and richer for our communities and families," said district superintendent McKell Withers.
Students worked for three days with their parents and Lowe's employees to build the classroom. "To see the continual effort to have new things come to our school with our outdoor classroom and our greenhouse, how exciting is that?" parent Kerstin Koldewyn said.
Escalante has received national recognition for its science programs and has met and exceeded the academic expectations of the Utah State Board of Education every year.
E-mail: jboal@ksl.com
