CH-CH Students Awarded ‘Seeds for Education’ Grant

Ms. Shipley’s Biology class has been hard at work on a project that will soon have a very real impact on the CH-CH campus.  Her students worked together to create a proposal that was awarded the Wild Ones: Native Plants, Natural Landscapes ‘Seeds for Education’ grant.  The mission of Wild Ones is to promote environmentally sound landscaping practices and to preserve biodiversity through the preservation, restoration and establishment of native plant communities (http://www.wildones.org/about-us-2).

Shipley assigned the grant project to her Biology students, who held various roles throughout the creation of the proposal including: Project Manager, Botanist, Zoologist, and Landscape Designer. 

“Each group developed their own proposal of what they could do with the grant money,” said Shipley.  “Their goal was to create a landscaping plan for the walkway to the Commons using native plants.”

Each of the groups’ plans was then presented to a panel of judges which included: Al Umina from the CH-CH Building and Grounds department, Sarah Forrester a CH-CH Trustee and Landscape Architect, and Jim McManus from the Wagon Wheel Nursery and Farmstand in Lexington. 

“It was really important for everyone to work as a team on this project,” said McManus.  “And working with native plants means they had to really think outside of the box.”

Instead of picking one winning plan, several key aspects of each were merged into one, which became their submitted project.  The students then worked together to write and submit the completed grant proposal, creating a real-world learning experience. 

“There are many challenges when working on a real-world project such as this,” said Shipley. “But the students love working on something that is real, and learning how to work together to create solutions is an invaluable lesson.”

The class recently learned that their project was selected to receive the ‘Seeds for Education’ grant, and they are excited to bring their project to life by planting this May.
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Located 10 miles from Boston, Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall (CH-CH) is a private, college preparatory day and boarding school for grades 7-12/PG. CH-CH cultivates intellectual courage, creative ambition, and unwavering empathy that drives students to achieve their best.
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