This was an eventful year at Green Teens schools. Students studied a full spectrum of topics from soil composition and organic pest control to water quality to solar energy. Weekly activities were complimented with fieldtrips to the Zilker Botanical Gardens, Wildflower Center Nature Nights, Saturday’s Farmers Market, and some good old fashioned fun outdoors canoeing on Ladybird Lake and caving in South Austin. A committed group of students at each site stepped up to take action too. Projects ranged from building and racing model solar cars, to instituting campus wide recycling campaigns and reconstructing a pond habitat. 

On Saturday, May 8th Green Teens from LBJ, Eastside, Kealing and Bedichek showcased their knowledge by leading activities at a community fair. Parents, youth, and neighbors gathered to learn something new and meet some brilliant young people!

 

Eastside Memorial High School (in partnership with 21st Century Community Learning Centers)

This year Green Teens at Eastside took full ownership of maintaining the courtyard gardens at the school. Students tackled some of the dirtier chores of working in a garden too. Big rotten banana trees were cut back and have now grown back into beautiful trees. The garden transformation continued with a cleaning out of the existing pond, and planting ornamentals, veggies, and herbs while learning about native plants, propagation and uses of herbs. Next, to show some school pride students painted cement tables in the courtyard the school colors.

After a year of hard work, projects came to a close and students got a chance to relax (a little) in the garden and relish in their accomplishments while playing Gardenopoly and Compost Gin that to their surprise they were experts at!

 

LBJ High School (in partnership with Boys and Girls Club)

Given the option of installing various types of gardens at the beginning of spring students at LBJ opted to build a square foot garden. Despite a few bumps in the road with the power drill and exploring the best weed barriers. The garden was a huge success!  Students grew and harvested peas, sage, rosemary, swiss chard, spinach, collards, lettuce, and parsley. With big harvests came activities on healthy eating and creative cooking with vegetables. Although they were skeptical at first, they enjoyed their veggies with scrambled eggs and salad.

Reagan High School (in partnership with 21st Century Community Learning Centers and Boys and Girls Club)

Reagan High School is going through a lot of transition these days as is the Green Teens programming at Reagan. With lots of staff support from 21st Century afterschool and Boys and Girls Club we kept on and students became more curious and found themselves having fun exploring eco crafts.

Those who ventured into this new zone of programming found themselves getting incredibly messy making seed balls, heading into a creek to collect macros and test the water, donning helmets and gloves to bravely explore Whirlpool Cave, or holding a 6 foot boa constrictor! Students countered the stress of high school life and the intensive GT activities with making chamomile and lavender tea bags to help them relax and sleep at night, and by building bird feeders from water bottles and eco pots from newspaper they discovered creative ways to reuse while attracting wildlife to their school. For their Reagan showcase, Green Teens recycled and painted 2 liter bottles to use for “green” bowling.

Martin Middle School (in partnership with 21st Century Community Learning Centers)

Martin Middle School students spent time learning about compost, soil composition, organic pest control, beneficial bugs, seasonal plants and much more while installing and planting vegetables, herbs and native plants. These dedicated middle schoolers attended week after week and know what it takes to maintain a garden. As a break from their hard work in the garden students ventured on fieldtrips to the Zilker Botanical Gardens, Boggy Creek Farms, and some good old fashioned fun outdoors canoeing on Ladybird Lake and caving in South Austin.

 

Kealing and Bedichek Middle Schools Spring 2010 (in partnership with Citizen Schools)

Hot Wheels Solar Powered!

During the spring semester Green Teens at Kealing, and Bedichek Middle School designed and built model solar cars while learning about renewable energy and reuse of materials. Students became ‘Green Warriors’ when they attended class and shared new ways they had learned to conserve energy and creative ways to build their cars out of reused materials

On Saturday, May 8th Green Teens from Kealing and Bedichek showcased the model solar cars they designed and built, and then stepped into competitive mode to race their cars. Keeping the competitive spirit students attended a city-wide model solar car race hosted by Applied Materials where they raced their cars against engineers and high school students! 

 

Kealing and Bedichek Middle Schools Fall 2009 (in partnership with Citizen Schools)

 

The student led activities were featured in The Daily Texan.