Outdoor+learning+environments+at+Laurel+Mountain

**School Garden Center & Wildlife Preserve (DRAFT)**

**May, 2004**

The garden space in the back of the school, just outside our science lab, officially came under construction May, 2004. This was the year our wildlife garden was designed and constructed by 5th grade students.

The learning experience for this project involved class designs for what this habitat space was going to look like. Once plans were developed and a final design chosen, students were introduced to the hands-on learning experience of developing and constructing this space. Over the span of three weeks, our first outdoor classroom space was created. This area was to serve as a small habitat for a variety of amphibian, and reptile species as well as a host of other native beneficiaries to an aquatic habitat space. Students would then have continual opportunities to make observations, take measurements, and record these in some manner for continued study in the classroom. The priority of this garden space was to provide a suitable habitat to variety of wildlife and to be used for research through the science processes.

**2004 -2005**

 This year was spent figuring out how to build a garden center for the other two thirds of the space that we had available. Our class had built a cold-frame in the wildlife garden and tried to build a greenhouse structure for growing plants across the sidewalk from the nature garden. Though we had developed the structures, we learned, through experience, that our makeshift greenhouses would not be a long term solution for growing plants. Over the course of the school year, my fifth grade class and the ecology club began growing flowers and vegetables in the cold frame. These plants were given away during our spring plant sale. Because of our interest in building a green house, a grant was written for an 8x12 greenhouse in the hopes that we might be able to get a real greenhouse on our campus. After being awarded the grant, the greenhouse had arrived in the spring. Once constructed, we began experimenting with seed germination, propagation, and caring for a variety of different types of plants. This time of gardening was enhanced with a handful of dedicated and devoted parents who had the patience and the passion for working with the kids to provide a positive learning experience. The wildlife garden along with the vegetable and plant growing was a big focus for the ecology club.

The classes continued to use the wildlife garden for research using the science processes.

Also during this school year, garden beds were constructed over the entire campus for teachers to use with their students. These garden beds were ready for an Earth Day celebration outdoors where teachers worked with their students in their gardens.

This was also the first year we began to move towards the woods behind our school to get closer to nature. This school year, the class was in the woods by the fifth grade playground. We worked to make the water drainage from the road flow more efficiently through our campus, into the woods, making sure heavy rain would flow away from neighbors yards. We also created a path with bordered garden areas where soil was laid down for native plants to grow. It was from this work that the idea was born to restore native wildlife habitats in the woods behind our school. During the spring, we had only just begun to form the trails that would someday be the trails we have today in the preserve. In the fall of 2005, the Earley’s Eagles would be moving full steam ahead with the restoration of the land with which our preserve resides.

**2006-07**

This year was the first really busy year for our class in the preserve area. Over the course of this school year, all of the trails were developed and bordered by rocks. In addition, we began to create different habitat spaces within the preserve. The restoration of our prairie area was one of a few large projects undertaken by the class during this school year. Ashe Juniper trees were cut back and piled to serve as brush piles that marked our boundaries. These brush piles serve a very important purpose for all kinds of wildlife. Along with the prairie restoration project, the class also designed the preserve’s first pond. In addition, the students and I constructed owl boxes and bird homes to set in trees in our preserve.

During the course of this school year, the wildlife garden was still being used by some classes and our garden area received the new addition of a shed. Now we had a place to store our tools, wheelbarrows, and other garden needs and materials.

With regards to gardening, we were doing so on a limited basis. The vast amount of work constructing our preserve essentially put our garden center on hold. The few beds we had, were used on a limited basis. We also found that our greenhouse just was not sufficient for quality use for most of the school year without a proper ventilation system. Without electricity for a ventilation system to keep temperatures normal or to heat during cold weather, it was difficult to do a whole lot in our Central Texas climate. In addition, we simply did not have someone who was using this area often enough to get things moving in making this a productive area. The addition of the shed, however, was still another piece of the slow progress towards making this garden center viable if the right people came together to move it forward.

 **2007- 2008**

 This school year was another very busy year working in the preserve. Over the course of this school year, two ponds were designed and constructed by the students. The first was the Frog pond in the fall and the second was our Prairie pond in the spring. In addition, students cleaned up and measured a habitat space that was to be called our Golden-cheeked Warbler habitat. The students created their own designs and a final design was voted on. This area has a shady understory that features a large native garden space and a number of native plants and trees that have since been identified and have signs sharing their names. Also added was a hummingbird and butterfly garden space with native plants on top of our prairie overlook area. Our rabbit garden was created as a habitat space that was protected from predators and two burrows were built by the kids either as a home or as a place for wildlife to hide. Finally, we had a community service group come out to help with cleaning up our prairie area from the trash and glass that had collected over the years. Once this area was scraped clean, we had ordered 13 cubic yards of hill country soil dropped on campus that would be placed, by wheebarrows, into our prairie area and spread out so that a greater diversity of native grass and wildflowers could grow. This was also our first year in purchasing a large amount of seed and plants at the Lady Bird Wildflower Center. In addition to the physical work in the preserve, this was the first year that trail cameras were mounted and used to keep track of wildlife 24 hours a day. Along with this collection of data, we were also incorporating direct observation and capturing photos with a telephoto digital camera. It was during the course of this school year that the beginnings of research on our preserve’s wildlife had taken root. During this year, mammals, birds (residential as well as winter and spring migratory, amphibians, reptiles, butterflies and wildflowers were beginning to be observed, photographed, and catalogued.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">On the campus grounds, we constructed a bird feeding station at the southeast end of the track. This station houses numerous feeders of both seed and suet. We also have a trail camera mounted on the station to capture birds eating from the feeder.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Along with the year long work in the preserve, students were still using the wildlife garden with the ecology club, I was having my kids learn the science processes, and other classroom teachers were able to find times to use this area as well. Due to our focus developing the preserve, there was very little in the development of the garden idea from just a year or two ago. The preserve occupied all of my time and then some.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">**2008-09**

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">This school year was another very busy year in the preserve as we continued working on our restoration efforts. This school year students created a 12 foot cement chimney built for the Chimney Swifts that migrate north in the spring from the Amazon Basin. This tower also features a kiosk and a large compass encircling the tower. Also during this school year, we made improvements to our prairie pond by adding a larger liner to make this pond’s space larger. In addition, we created a new habitat area and called it our woodland habitat. This space includes two large Texas Red Oak as well a mix of Ashe Juniper. Within this space, students constructed a burrow for field mice and one for animals a bit larger.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Over the course of this school year, a gps map of the trail system was and boundary of our preserve was developed. I used this map to have a professional mapper make an official and professional map of our preserve. This map also includes feature areas within our preserve. Each featured area has an informational piece about it that was written by the students in this year’s class. The map was finished by the spring of this year and was posted in the preserve to serve as a completed service learning project.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">This year’s final preserve project was the development of an observation area. A short pillar was constructed to hold a large magnifying glass for students to observe small objects and specimens. Plans for a bird blind that would include binoculars and spotting scopes were in the works for a project next school year.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">This was also the first year students began to conduct research on a particular wildlife species found in our preserve. This research involves very high level work as they develop research questions, thesis statements and a general outline of their research. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">After that portion of the research has been completed, students begin to cite different sources as they develop the body of their paper. Once this has been completed, students then collect, organize and then analyze the data to answer their research question and determine whether their thesis statement was accurate. In addition to the research component of the preserve, our class also engages in a variety of service learning projects to help students, teachers, parents and other community members learn more about the native plant and animals species found here. The projects include maps, posters, information boards and kiosks sharing a variety of information for others to learn from. This is an excellent opportunity for our students to become experts on topics of their interest and share information they have learned over the course of the school year. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">This school year was the first year our favorite grandmother Dorothy began volunteering her time Friday afternoons with the ecology club. Over the course of this school year, Dorothy taught students gardening skills and began experimenting with ideas she had for our garden space.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;"> Our wildlife garden, complete with 2 ponds and a stream, was still an area for learning the science processes. Gardening on a small scale was continuing on Fridays during ecology club.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">At the end of the summer, before school began, our new compost barrel had arrived on our campus. This compost barrel holds four wheelbarrow loads of compost in each of its two drums. It was now possible to “cook” large amount of compost in a very short amount of time with the right materials. This was a big piece of eventually being able to make new soil on a much bigger scale once the garden area was fully functioning. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;"> At the end of the school year, I was introduced to Dorothy who shared her ideas and her wish to really make something of our garden space. Dorothy was looking for a way to bring gardening to the school but still hadn’t had enough experience working in the garden area space to know for sure how exactly her ideas could come to fruition. The challenges of how to incorporate the children and how to get people to take part were a fresh set of challenges if we were going to move forward and make this space a real space for gardening and learning. This was the very beginning of a relationship between herself and where we would become committed to making these ideas of ours a reality. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;"> Dorothy was very much into making a legitimate garden center here on our campus. She wanted to work with the students in small groups to teach them about horticulture and the importance of understanding the importance and value to growing your own food. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">At this time I was still very busy working to develop and restore new habitats in the preserve. In addition, there was always the task of maintaining and researching which took up additional time. I still hadn’t begun to plan for ideas for making this area, that already had the pieces of a greenhouse, quality compost maker, and adequate garden beds that were built over spring break.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">**2009 - 2010**

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">This year we were able to add a lot of new habitat areas to our preserve. In the fall, we had our second prairie restoration project. On top of the soil that was brought down two years ago, we added another 12 cubic yards to our prairie area. (we even figured out how many cubic feet that would have amounted to and then determined how many 3 cubic food bags that would have been if they were purchased at Home Depot and how much that amount of soil would have cost!) The students and I brought down the dirt in wheelbarrows. Once all the dirt was “dropped”, students began to rake it out. To finish up this project, we waited a day before a big rain in the winter before to spread native grass and wildflower seeds.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">In December, the class designed and constructed our “Hillside Pond” This pond is on the exact eastern boundary line of our preserve property and collects between 600-700 cubic feet of rain water. This pond was also fitted with a camera to collect images of wildlife. In addition to this project, the students in our enrichment cluster designed and constructed two large display cases for our preserve. These cases would hold rocks, fossils and other specimens with information about each. <span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">In April, our class designed and constructed a bird blind for our spotting scopes and binoculars. We now have a large chest to hold this equipment for our convenience in using them. Later in April, we created a new kiosk at our Prairie Pond. This kiosk had a map of the preserve and an updated thumbnail poster of all of the native flowers that have been observed growing in our preserve.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Finally, in May, the students designed and help construct our final preserve pond. It is called the Rabbit Garden pond as it is located on the other side of the path from our rabbit garden. When this pond flows over, it runs down into the prairie to recharge the prairie pond. This year was a big year for really making the preserve something kids are interested in and can learn from.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">In our garden area, Dorothy moved from volunteering her time during ecology club to being a daily volunteer during a 30 period in the mornings before the students have lunch. She worked with 5-7 students each day and really began with growing plants from seeds, transplanting these to our garden beds, and raising them for consumption. She even organized a couple of pre lunch salads as a sampling of the produce that was grown. This year was the first real year of taking the gardening space to a new level. It was also the year that we both decided to make our space a fully functioning gardening center. Our plans were drawn up and discussed over the summer and everything was put into motion from this point forward.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">**2010 - 2011**

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">Before school started I had gone into our garden area to remove old native plant beds and clear out that space for an fruit tree orchard idea Dorothy had. In addition, rain barrels were being collected and fixed to be placed under our drains as we prepared for the trees that were to be planted in the winter. New garden beds were constructed and new soil was ordered for these new beds. In addition, plans for finally making our greenhouse work properly were in motion. In October, the greenhouse was moved to its final resting place as we began preparing for electricity to be installed for a new ventilation system to moderate the air temperature and humidity levels and provide healthy air flow.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">My class was also working on a project to completely redesign our wildlife garden. We were going to change up the ponds and make changes to the stream. We even had a new liner to install. The kids and I all generated a design for what the area would look like. We came to a consensus that we would have a habitat space for lizards with a large rock pile. We would surround that rock pile with a new grass and wildflower garden to attract insects. In addition, this would also provide habitat space for our leopard frogs, toads, and even small snakes.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">During the fall, we had purchased a new, more durable liner for our frog pond. We also worked to create a more efficient collection of water and drainage area for recharging water to the prairie pond.

<span style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">In December, the students and I had wrapped up or wildlife garden restoration project and we began digging holes for our fruit trees, vines, and bushes. In January, “Tree Folks”, a local nonprofit group, came to work with our students and help us plant our new trees. We were lucky to have the Austin Statesman come to our school on this day to do a story about our work.


 * 2011-2012**

We have been very busy so far this school year. In just the first half of the year, our students have created at 20x20 x9 screened in butterfly habitat area. We added butterfly plants and spread many butterfly attracting wildflower seeds to help this habitat area explode with color in the spring. In addition, we have a small pond and two water barrels that we fill with water from our marsh habitat area in order to provide the plants or pond with water during our warmer months. In addition, we have constructed a poster board for information about our wildflowers, butterflies and dragonflies that can be seen. This habitat area allows our students to learn more about host larval and nectar plants. In addition, our students have better opportunities to photograph and research butterflies and other insects that can be found in the habitat.

Our class has also added a 5th large pond to our preserve. This pond is situated just in front of our existing prairie pond. We now have three ponds being filled by a single drainage point from our school. I am using the 3 pond system as a demonstration system that models the Highland Lake system. Our top pond would represent Lake Buchanan, the second pond would represent Lake LBJ, and the third would be Lake Travis. This pond system would allow the kids to gain a better idea of how our lake system in Central Texas works. In addition, we have provided a "habitat buffer" surrounding our bottom two ponds to allow insects, amphibians, and reptiles interact with the prairie more easily. The students and their parents have come together to donate funds for 10 cubic yards of soil and native wildflower and grass seeds. In addition to the flower and grass seeds, nitrogen fixing clovers have also been included to help keep the soil enriched with additional nitrogen. The new habitat area surrounding our ponds will provide wildlife with additional food and shelter.

In December, our preserve was the site for an Eagle Scout Leadership project. An alumni student from Laurel Mountain worked on a number of projects to help improve our preserve. Many of our students laminated posters of wildlife were made into aluminum signs with UV coating to protect their color from sunlight. Also, a large map of our preserve has been updated as an aluminum sign as well. In addition, small sign posts for the different plants and trees were made so we could have these names posted in a professional manner around our preserve. Another project was the restoration of our compass area surrounding our Chimney Swift Tower. The Eagle Scout decided to reuse a dense foam matting as the cardinal points for the compass. The surrounding circle was covered in red mulch. In addition, the group constructed a cedar fence around an understory garden in our Warbler Habitat area and also worked on two trails to clear them of loose rock.

On tap for the second half of the semester will be the creation of a sun dial, a hillside erosion control project, and a natural composting collection area in our woodland habitat to provide ground organisms a source of cover and food as well as to provide an additional food source for birds and reptiles.