New Egypt High School expands to outdoor class

Students at New Egypt High School working under the guidance of teacher Jamie Donahue recently completed construction of a rain garden that addressed a flooding problem and will serve as an outdoor classroom. PLUMSTED- New EgyptHigh School has expanded by adding a new outdoor classroom and solving a flooding problem in the process.

"A rain garden with New Jersey native plants was created to capture and filter runoff water from the student parking area," said Jamie Donahue, the school's biology and New Jersey coastal ecology teacher. "Flooding and erosion were stopped and the area is now a beautifully landscaped site for use as an outdoor classroom."

Through a $5,000 grant from the Barnegat Bay National Estuary Program, Donahue said the previously blighted area is now a 4,800-square-foot space that contains a teaching podium, picnic tables for student seating and activities set in a garden that includes redmaples, daylilies and blueberry bushes.

She said a sign explaining the project's theme, "Falling into Spring and Springing into Fall," is also in place, as are birdhouses.

"We chose that theme so students would look forward to having plants in the garden when they were attending classes," said Donahue. "The garden is low maintenance and the native plants were chosen to be drought resistant."

Donahue coordinated the rain garden project and said students in the school's environmental club were the heart of constructing it. The members of the environmental club were assisted by about 50 students from all classes in the school.

The project began in September 2007 with the initial application, and the final installation was May 13 when the garden design came to life with students and staff assisting.

"The planting and installation was actually the easy part," said Donahue. "The hard part was the preparation, research, planning and design. The students were involved in every aspect of the project."

She said the outdoor classroom is suitable for teaching many subjects. In fact, she planned to teach the mathematics of calculating the rate of runoff that flows into the garden. It has other advantages, too.

"The garden itself teaches awareness of the environment and how to create and preserve habitats for plants and animals," said Donahue. "I hope the students take the idea home with them and see what they can do to conserve water and the environment."

Donahue said she was ecstatic about the success of the project and thanked the students and staff as well as the business community that donated items such as rocks, mulch and compost.

The Ocean County Soil Conservation District (OCSCD), with funding from the Natural Resources Conservation Service's Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program, oversees the installation of rain gardens in schools and environmental centers in Ocean County.

"The purpose of the rain

garden program is to form unique designs for the prevention of excessive runoff from storm water by creating habitats that use our native plants to absorb excessive water," said Christine Raabe, OCSCD education outreach coordinator. "Each project is specific to the school or environmental center."

Raabe said this is the second year of funding for the rain garden project that includes teacher training, resources and curriculum on the Barnegat Bay Watershed, professional landscaping advice, as well as funds for the plantings and other materials.

"I wish we could have rain gardens turned into outdoor classrooms in all our schools," she said. "With cutbacks to school trips, rain gardens are an alternative way to inspire students about the environment and to become aware of their own surroundings."

Other schools with OCSCD rain gardens include the Jackson Vocational Technical School; Central RegionalHigh School, Bayville; Priff Elementary School, Waretown; Lavallette Elementary School; and the Hugh J. Boyd Elementary School, Seaside Heights.

The Society of American Foresters and the Forest Resource Education Center are also partners in the rain garden/outdoor classroom program.