The new addition of the greenhouse has certainly grown student’s knowledge of working with plant life since its grand opening in October.

Since first opening, the greenhouse has been used as a science classroom and, according to Jenna Cataldi, special education teacher, it is now a place her students are “in almost every day,” as they work with Master Gardeners from the University of Illinois Extension Program.   

“[A group of women] come once or twice a week and they work with our students and us out there. They’re helping guide what needs to be done, how to get started, and how to grow certain things or teaching us about propagation,” Cataldi said. “It’s been a really neat experience and the kids love the women that come, and the women have developed really nice relationships with our students.”

With these women’s help the students have been able to accomplish their goals throughout their first year working and learning within the greenhouse.  

“I think we have big long-term goals. We’re definitely in the infancy stages of [the greenhouse] and we’re really just seeing what’s working and what doesn’t work, but we’re learning from it,” Cataldi said. “I think the overall goal of getting students out there and getting them involved in it and having them growing and learning [has been accomplished].”

Within their main goal of getting the students involved, the transition teachers strive for students to be more hands-on.

“We harvested our first few crops of microgreens, sugar snap peas, and more. We haven’t had enough to cook, but certainly enough to eat and for [students] to try,” Cataldi said. “I like seeing the students that are sometimes quiet in the classroom and not big participators going out there and [be] really being hands-on. Yesterday, Emily did the whole Marigold thing: stuck the pencils in to make the holes, put every fifty seeds in them. She’s not a big worker in the classroom, typically, and she goes out there and just kills it. She’s awesome so that’s been really neat to see.”

To display the place where these students branch out, the greenhouse had an official opening to introduce it to the community as a whole.

“It’s a state-of-the-art greenhouse for our students. We ended up having our ribbon cutting ceremony for the community in November,” Annamarie Bader, special education teacher, said. “The lucky thing is that the weather was really nice in October, so we had already gotten in there and started planting some things and we already had some things growing by the time our ribbon-cutting event started, so that was really cool,”

The students continue to learn new information about planting every day and reflect on their favorite memories.

“My favorite part are the flowers, [how] we’re learning how to plant, and germination,” Elizabeth Hernandez, transition student, said. “We learn how it takes time to grow the flowers, and [we record] how long it takes to grow the flowers. So, [now], whenever I want to grow some flowers, I will kind of know how long to wait until they grow.”