The tiny greens tasted a little like mint, one of the Thomas Jefferson Middle School sixth-graders said.
As members of the science club, they had helped grow the plants on a microgreens table, one of the many new additions to the greenhouse behind the Waukegan school.
The purchases — and the know-how provided by the Hoffman Estates-based nonprofit Growing Healthy People — were funded through a $73,000 grant by the Abbott Fund, Abbott spokesman Matt Bedella said.
The plan is for Growing Healthy People to give Jefferson Middle School staff and teachers all the tools they need — checklists, breakdowns on various responsibilities, curriculum and even training on how to breed the tilapia that sustain the aquaponics system — and then gradually hand off the responsibilities, Principal Chaun Johnson said.
The partnership came about after a project that social studies teacher Joe Russell started with his students collided with conversations between the Abbott Fund and Growing Healthy People about two existing greenhouses.
Abbott had funded the construction of the greenhouse at Jefferson Middle School and another at Neal Math and Science Academy in North Chicago, said Cheryl Besenjak, Growing Healthy People’s executive director. The greenhouse at Jefferson had been used for several years, but when certain staff left, it fell out of use.
Russell had noticed the greenhouse sitting unused and started wondering how he could use it to engage his students, he said.
He had each of his classes pick a continent where they would correspond with a pen pal, learning about their pen pal’s daily caloric intake and expenditure, Russell said. The students then used the numbers to compare the different continents and to figure out how much they’d need to grow in the greenhouse to keep their pen pal alive for a day.
Then they had to try to grow it, he said. Not only did they succeed, Russell said, but he also saw his students’ grades rise.
“Many kids are visual, kinesthetic learners,” Russell said. “Many kids are audio learners. … This is the way Indians have been doing education for 45,000 years. It addresses every learning style. There’s a reading component. There’s a math component. There’s a visual component. There’s a hands-on component. It’s all there.”
Abbott, meanwhile, had reached out to Growing Healthy People to see whether they’d be interesting in setting up high-density, alternative-method growing systems at the greenhouses, Besenjak said. They were game.
The goal is to use the greenhouse across the board in all sorts of classes, not just science, Ney said. They’ll take the different curriculum materials being provided by Growing Healthy People and adapt them this summer to work for them.
Sixth-grade science teacher Joanna Peterson will be teaching a botany class that students can take as an elective starting next year, she said. She hopes the greenhouse will help students develop their leadership skills, something that fits into the magnet theme being developed at the school, she said.
“When I brought my science club kids here in, natural leaders just start to show who they are, show themselves, and other kids are learning from them,” Peterson said. “Kids learn how to interact with each other in a positive way, in a leadership capacity without being bullying, without being mean.”
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Lauren Smith, a language arts teacher for English language learners, said she wants to focus on career and college readiness and getting them thinking about the future.
“A lot of them, they might start listing off a bunch of jobs and careers, but they really don’t know what it entails,” Smith said. “Through the greenhouse, they start to help and participate, and they really get to start to see the full cycle of this whole entire system, which then starts to incorporate what jobs and careers, internships and scholarships can come.”
But beyond the academic, teachers hope the greenhouse fulfills another need by helping students learn about nutrition, try healthy foods and take them home with them, Russell said.
Sixth-grader Tony Morales said he’s particularly liked a green that was a little different than the lettuce he’s used to.
Seventh-grader Jayden Young tried collard greens and kale for the first time this week. He said he definitely preferred the collard greens over the more bitter kale.
“I actually like (the greenhouse), mostly all the food, but also the wildlife we have,” Jayden said, referring to the 80 or so tilapia that excrete the ammonia that is turned into the nitrogen that feeds the plants.
Russell has students in his classes who are already exhibiting health issues because of poor diets, he said.
The ZIP code that includes Jefferson Middle School has the third-highest obesity rate in Lake County at 32.3 percent and the third-lowest median household income at just over $41,000, according to a 2015 Lake County Health Department report.
The average age at which Waukegan residents die is 67.9 years old compared to 78.5 years old in Lake Forest, just 8 miles down the road, according to other Lake County Health Department data.
“We’re feeding hungry kids,” Ney said. “We’re supplying them with food and nutrients. It’s all working out. It’s all edible. It’s clean and healthy. There are no pesticides, nothing on it. Clean food, it’s a value to everyone in our community. That’s why we’re so proud to have it.”