If you have driven by the Crookston High School on Fisher Avenue, you have probably noticed some landscaping work being done by students in the Landscape Design Class taught by Whitney Rupprecht. The Landscaping Design class is one of the many great class offerings through the Ag Program at Crookston High School. The landscaping projects are being funded by the $5,000 grant American Crystal Sugar recently gave to the Ag Program.
On the first day of class, the students gave ideas on what projects they would like to do and two projects came to the forefront. A flower bed on the south end of the high school property and some landscaping work at the front entrance of the school. “The students kind of decided for us. On the first day of class we went through the syllabus and different things and the students kind of told me where their interests were,” said Mrs. Rupprecht. “They really wanted to update the school, make it more modern, and add some points of interest to it.”
FLOWER BED –
The first project the students are working on is a flower bed on the south end of the Crookston High School property that is visible to people driving by on Fisher Avenue. “That is the largest by far and it will have a huge CHS landscape design that will face the road. It is a lot of bricks and a lot of muscle going into that,” said Mrs. Rupprecht. “We are building this ginormous retaining wall and sloping it down and eventually we will plant some flowers in there.”
On Thursday afternoon, some members of the class were transplanting over 750 Marigolds and Vinca Cora flowers/plugs that they will use for the flower bed. The rest of the members of the class were helping spread $1,200 worth of soil that Crookston School District Groundkeeper Ray Schaefer was dumping inside the retaining wall. “It started out as a big idea that was very abstract and the students really helped narrow it down and then one night it kind of clicked on every we should do so I scheduled out a plan and students helped design things and we did a scale model and it kind of worked out well,” said Mrs. Rupprecht. “It is a lot of steps and I am thankful that the students are great to work with. They are awesome! I can give them a task and they will get it done.”
FRONT ENTRANCE FLOWER BED –
The students also thought it would be nice to have some landscaping at the front entrance of the school so they are also working on that project. “We are redoing the front of the school and adding some flower beds because there wasn’t a whole lot there, so we wanted to give it some color,” said Mrs. Rupprecht. They will put flowers and some shrubs in the area to add a little extra to the front entrance.
The kids were enjoying being outside, doing something different, and some hands-on learning.
Joslynn Leach said they are staying busy. “Right now we are transplanting the flowers. That is our current project going on while they finish the flower box in the front,” said Leach. “It has been really fun to do some hands-on activities and it’s a lot different from all my other classes. It is a nice little break from senioritis.”
Noah Kiel said he has enjoyed the project. “If you look at UMC and they used to have the flowers and now it is covered by a banner. We are going to put in the flowers and make CHS in there and make it look really nice,” said Kiel. “I think it is pretty fun and I like labor more than anything. I am more of a hands-on student so I think this is more fun than bookwork. It’s good to see everybody learn new things and do things they aren’t comfortable with, so that is fun to see students try.”
Cameron Weiland has enjoyed the class and doing something different. “I like how we are doing hands-on work instead of being in the classroom doing homework,” said Weiland. “My job is media so I take pictures and post them to social media to keep everybody up to date on the work we are doing.”
Mrs. Rupprecht said the kids are enjoying the projects, especially when it is nice outside. “I think the kids are enjoying it. On nice days I think they really enjoy being outside,” said Rupprecht. “We are on a deadline and the last week of school is when I would like to get everything done. We might bring in some of the seventh and eighth graders because they are always excited to do those projects. It will get done. It might take a couple of weekends, but we will get it done.”
[yotuwp type=”videos” id=”W1LuxoIZCXM” ]
Tags:
