KQED News Mind/Shift – Leah Shaffer
“It started with a school garden at Maplewood Richmond Heights Middle School. The garden did so well that students built another garden. Then they added native plants, where seventh-grade students learned lessons in data collection as they counted pollinators. The students wanted more pollinators, so they added a beehive. The bees made honey, and the kids used their sweet surplus to learn about the economics of commodities, said science educator Scott McClintock, who helped build the MRH middle school science program. But students didn’t stop there. Next came an aquaponics lab in the basement, said McClintock, “so we had this giant tub that we were growing talapia in.” The nitrates from the fish waste got recycled back into the garden. All this took place at a public middle school near St. Louis that previously struggled academically.”(more)