Spring Break
Growing a better tomorrow
Sam Sheffield
Issue date: 12/1/08 Section: News
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UMKC's Urban Planning and Design (AUPD) collaborated on a project to help give students at Crispus Attucks Elementary School a chance to improve their environment and help prevent the growing number of students at the school who are developing asthma.
"This initiative is to get the kids involved through hands-on planting and growing and learning about the native plants in Missouri and to look at the ecosystem that surrounds them," said Sheila Dannar, principal of Crispus Attucks. "I think they're excited about it, anything that allows them to dig in the dirt is a good thing. They're excited about science, anything about science. There are plants for them to actually develop, [and they'll see] what it's going to look like, where to plant things, what kind of plants would be good in the types of soil we have here, what will grow in the light that we have here and even how wind direction will affect the plants."
AUPD worked with Burroughs Audubon of Kansas City and the Department of Architecture to provide the know-how. The project is partially funded by a grant from the National Audubon Society's Together Green initiative established by Toyota.
Dr. Jacob Wagner, professor of Urban Planning and Design at UMKC, said, "We're basically going to provide two outdoor classrooms and gardens at two different schools: Phyllis Wheatley Elementary School, and this one [Crispus Attucks]."
Joey Pruett, a graduate of UMKC, proposed the idea.
"Last spring, eight of my classmates and I put together this plan of new solutions on how to deal with vacant land maintenance," Pruett said. "We looked at other cities at their urban agriculture, like butterfly and rain gardens. We wanted to bring that back to our city and neighborhood."
Pruett said the air quality is bad because the neighborhood is located between a highway and railroad tracks.
"It's going to be like an outdoor classroom, and they'll learn about healthy food and the environment, and sustainability," Pruett said. "Hopefully, they'll go home and teach their parents, and we'll get the air cleaner. A lot of [urban improvement] plans get put on shelves and get dusty, so it's really good to see that we have a real positive impact on people's lives. Our plan kind of got the ball rolling, so there's going to be a lot positive things happening."
Mikia Johnson and Kaneisha Hicks, both fifth graders at Crispus Attucks, said they were really excited to plant things in the ground.
"It's cool because we never got to do this before, we get to dig in the dirt without getting in trouble, and I think it's good for the environment," said Johnson and Hicks. "It's really cool."
Dannar said children are naturally curious.
She said, "We have a kindergarten class participating, we have two second grade classes participating. We also have a third grade and a fifth grade. I think it's important that kids learn where their food comes from and how it's grown. That it's not from Wal-Mart."
ssheffield@unews.com
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