Hickory Hills School’s Outdoor Classroom

How do you grow three thousand, three hundred plants — from seed — in nine months? How do you plant one thousand, seven hundred plants, in five hours? How do you touch the lives of 758 children and their parents with plants?

This project is focusing on creating an integrated naturalized setting using native Missouri plants for use as an outdoor classroom for kindergarten through 8th grade students.

This is the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified school in southwest Missouri, making it important to use the same “green” philosophy throughout the landscape. Goals are to increase the greenspace and improve the aesthetics around the school which provide a calming effect and enhance the student’s ability to learn while increasing community awareness about native plants. To use the grounds as a tool to teach about the importance of increasing native plant biodiversity by working with a variety of volunteers fostered by community partnerships. To serve as a model for other schools in the district teaching long term sustainability techniques, why it is important, and what role we all have in minimizing our impact on the earth.

Regina Wang wrote a piece about the project in the April 3-16 issue of the Community Free Press. Check it out!