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Canfield Middle School greenhouse brought to life
CANFIELD
Faculty, staff and administrators at Canfield Village Middle School cannot remember the last time anyone used the school’s greenhouse, which was built some time in the 1990s.
Mara Banfield, one of two principals at the middle school, said she estimates the greenhouse hasn’t been used in more than a decade.
For most of that time, it’s been a storage space at the back of the middle school.
Now, two teachers have been turning the storage space into a greenhouse again for classroom use. Angela Alexandrides, a family and consumer-science teacher, and Steve DeMaiolo, a science teacher, met with the principals last spring to figure out how to use the greenhouse.
“We figured that we have a nice greenhouse, so we thought about how we could use that space in a way that’s beneficial to students,” DeMaiolo said.
DeMaiolo said Alexandrides wanted to use the space to grow fresh vegetables and herbs for her cooking class; he wanted to use the space for experiments on plants.
“I loved the idea, so we got moving as quick as possible on it,” Banfield said. She said the school cleared out the space during summer.
Tables of potted plants and equipment are in the greenhouse. Alexandrides said the space is being used for herbs and pepper plants.
Alexandrides said teachers donated most of the plants for the greenhouse. Gardening Indoor, a garden shop in North Lima, donated lights and some of the equipment to run it.
DeMaiolo said he and Alexandrides hope to get more teachers and students involved in using the space in future years. He said his students seem to like getting hands-on experience with experiments.
“People really respond to real-world situations better than traditional teaching methods,” he said “So far, the students seem to enjoy the greenhouse.”
Banfield said certain students will get the opportunity to care for plants in the greenhouse this year. She said she is talking to other teachers to see how they can integrate their classes with the greenhouse space.