Meggan Monday: Mississippi Power funds garden project at Pass Road Elementary
On this week’s Meggan Monday, we are bringing you a story about teaching our children to be stewards of the environment.
Pass Road Elementary’s Quest Class, which teaches students to explore real world problems and develop ways to solve them through hands-on projects, found a way to enhance the school’s garden by creating a watering system using rain barrels.
Pass Road Elementary student Byron Dedeaux said, “We have blackberries, blueberries, which is really fun because we get a lot of vegetables and fruits around here because we really want it. When we have them, Miss Davis, our teacher gives it to us. And that is the best part around here.”
Gifted teacher Melanie Davis said, “This is a wonderful program for our kids. These are future leaders, and I love to be able to give them the opportunities to follow their passions and to come up with great ideas and be critical thinkers and really get their hands dirty and the things that they liked.”
Kaila Moran Griffith with Mississippi Power said, “And she has been a previous recipient of environmental education grants for the last several years and was the recipient again this year and as you can see, her garden just keeps growing and growing. And so, we’re really excited to see that she’s put in a watering system this year with that grant and so it’s really cool for us at Mississippi Power to see our educators continue to grow their past projects.”
“You’ll notice each one of the flowerbeds has a different theme. Each one of them is a different study that the kids were interested in. They’ve done all kinds of different types of gardening. They’ve really focused this year on companion planting and being more self-sufficient with these rain barrels and starting our own irrigation system. So, I’ve been really proud of all the different research and the projects they’ve been working on.”
Pass Road Elementary student Everette Smith said, “To do different planting things. So, we start to get shovels and dig up in the ground and we put the plants in but you have to be quick putting the plants in because if the sun and air get on it, it could die really fast.”
Pass Road Elementary student Julian Dedeaux said, “We get to pull weeds. We get to put stuff in the garden and you do more stuff out here, that’s fun.”
“You can study other plans to learn different lifestyles in the garden for how to garden and you need to, or how to respect other animals.”
“I feel proud. I feel proud that I’m helping the earth.”
