Rochester Garden Club Solves Environmental Problem for Local Science Teachers

The Rochester Garden Club Supports High School Science Studies

Two environmental science teachers in the Rochester School District had a problem. Each teacher wanted to give his students a better opportunity to learn about the environment, but there was not enough money in the budget to fulfill his wishes. To solve their problem, the teachers applied for a special projects grant from the Rochester Garden Club, and the club responded with grants totaling over $4000.

At Rochester High School, the Advanced Placement (AP) Environmental Science classes perform aquatic studies on Paint Creek and Trout Lake in the Bald Mountain Recreation area. Students don waders to enter the water, collect samples and measure critical elements that can indicate the water quality of the system. In years past, students did not have enough waders for everyone, which limited the time each student could participate in the study. “Every year I hear students say that they wanted to get into the water but couldn’t because of the lack of waders. With more waders, we can be more efficient and the saved time will allow me to enhance other parts of the trip,” explained science teacher Brandon Shurter.

At Stoney Creek High School, AP Environmental Science teacher Don Wilson was struggling to improve his classroom green house and hydroponics system. He built much of it himself, and used limited resources to keep the green house operational. The lack of grow lights reduced the active growing season to a few months per year. His dream was to purchase high quality lights and a solar power system to operate the hydroponic system and some of the grow lights. “Now that we can grow plants reliably, we can use them for Environmental Studies, Botany, Biology, and even some Microbiology classes,” explained Wilson. “In addition, we can start vegetables to be transplanted to the raised bed gardens on the school grounds.”

One of the missions of the Rochester Garden Club is to support environmental education in the greater Rochester Community. In addition to educational grants, the club offers full scholarships to the week-long 4-H Environmental Summer Camp to qualified middle school students, and supports one graduating senior each year, who will be studying environmental science, agriculture or horticulture with a college scholarship of $1500.

Funds for these grants, scholarships and other community services performed by the Rochester Garden Club are raised through the annual Greens Market, a holiday destination for hundreds of area shoppers seeking beautiful, affordable holiday arrangements and handmade gifts. The sale begins the week after Thanksgiving. The club also sponsors the Rochester Garden Walk held this year on June 15. Visit www.RochesterGardenClub.org for details.