Local students get hands-on gardening experience
Centennial Middle School students build garden beds to begin harvest - News 11's Arlette Yousif reports
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - An idea is turned into reality thanks to science teachers at Centennial Middle School coming together to give students an interactive real-world class on agriculture.
After COVID school closures during the 2020-2021 school year, the science department wanted to do something special for their students who have been remote-learning for most of the school year.
Students have already begun rolling up their sleeves.
"One major skill is definitely teamwork and another one is learning patience 'cause having multiple people telling you how to do something at once. But you kind of just have to be patient with everyone," says Centennial Middle School 8th grade student Abram Clark.
A drastic change from the previous school year.
"With COVID last year, we said we gotta do something fun, different, and innovative. So we decided, you know what, we’re gonna do a big ol’ garden," explains Centennial Middle School Science Teacher Stefanie Littlewood.
With two garden beds per science class and a total of six classes, many students will harvest seasonal crops just as our local ag workers… beginning with cauliflower.
"I enjoyed doing it ‘cause it’s something that both sides of my family did," says Clark.
And it was all a community effort. Servicemembers from Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Yuma also helped deliver and build items necessary to begin building the garden beds.
"We plan on doing this for however long we can and we’re just thankful that Mrs. Coffeen, our principal was totally down for it. She was excited about it," explains Littlewood.
This was all made possible by a partnership between centennial and the Yuma Arizona Business & Education Coalition (ABEC) as they provided donations for materials to breathe life into the new agriculture program.
Eventually, students will get to taste the fruits, or vegetables rather, of their labor for years to come.
