Science & arts thrive in garden

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

Youngstown

It’s A PLACE FOR QUIET reflection, chatting with friends and enjoying nature — and it’s in the courtyard of the Chaney School Campus.

Chaney’s Shakespeare Butterfly Garden opened last month in what had been the school’s empty courtyard.

Sharon Ragan, a teacher at the campus’s Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics school, secured grants to buy mulch, plants and other items for the garden. The school received donations, too.

“We wanted to combine STEM and VPA [visual and performing arts],” she said.

STEM comes in with the butterflies. Many of the plants were chosen because they attract the flying insect. The garden also includes a structure that will be covered with netting next school year and provide a place for butterflies to develop, allowing students to witness it and talk about it in class.

The Shakespeare theme brings VPA into the garden.

“Seniors are allowed to eat lunch out here and students during all parts of the day come out here,” said Pamela Lubich, STEM coordinator.

Solar lights and solar gazing balls dot the flower beds, allowing students to learn about solar energy.

Students expressed their artistry, painting rocks placed along the garden path.

Students from all grade levels worked on parts of the garden and Ragan, and Melissa Ford, a sixth-grade teacher at the school, said their classes looked forward to the time they spent outside creating it.

“They’d ask, ‘Can we go outside and work?’” Ford said.

Students did a lot of the work and helped pick the plants that fill the garden, learning about the best plants for the climate and the region.

Ragan plans to apply for additional grants next year to keep the garden flourishing.