TC Record Eagle : EPA grant helps environmental students

BY SARAH ELMS selms@record-eagle.com | Posted: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 2:12 pm

Grant supports hands-on environmental education

The Greenspire School students Izzy Grice, from left, and Sydney Hall plant native plants at the rain garden on campus to help filter runoff from Kids Creek.

TRAVERSE CITY — Students at The Greenspire School will be able to continue their work to reduce erosion along Kids Creek thanks to a recent grant.

Children at the public charter school designed and planted a rain garden on school grounds near the Grand Traverse Commons last year in an effort to curb runoff pollution and erosion along the creek.

The project caught the eye of Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative officials, who awarded The Greenspire School about $2,500 from a federal Environmental Protection Agency grant to buy new equipment for monitoring water quality.

Philip Girard, who teaches English and environmental stewardship at the school, said students now will have access to digital thermometers, water testing kits and hip waders so they can interact with their surrounding environment.

"You can tell as a teacher that it means a lot more when they get to be in the element, when you're outside in the environment and you're actually seeing the benefit of your work," Girard said.

The hands-on work helps students better understand the concepts in their textbooks, but it also teaches them how they can make a lasting impact on the region's watershed.

"What I love about that as a teacher is that these things don't go away," Girard said. "The efforts they make, it's not a one-shot lesson or project. It gets picked up by future students, and we can see our efforts over years and years."

Kristen Grote works closely with the school as a Grand Traverse Stewardship Initiative program coordinator and applied for the EPA grant on the school's behalf.

She said the extra resources will allow the school to collaborate with officials from the Grand Traverse Conservation District and the Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay who also are working to reduce runoff pollution and erosion along Kids Creek.

"Hopefully, when they grow up they'll want to be stewards of this community," Grote said.