Featured Image Credit: Seaworld Cares
By Natalie Helbling
A group of students in the Eco Club at Millennia Gardens Elementary School in Florida just made a bunch of manatees very happy! The students and their teachers worked together to create a very successful hydroponics system that produced nearly 800 heads of lettuce! A hydroponics system is a type of gardening that lacks soil and only uses water to grow plants. The success of their system allowed them to produce a large quantity of lettuce. What are a bunch of elementary school kids going to do with 800 heads of lettuce you ask?
Donate them, of course!!
The students paired up with SeaWorld Orlando’s Rescue team to donate their lettuce. SeaWorld will be using the lettuce to feed to their rehabilitating and injured manatees. Manatees eat an enormous amount of lettuce each day, and receiving this donation was very helpful to the SeaWorld team. Not only did the students learn how to plant and grow crops in a sustainable way, they were able to incorporate math, biology, and serve the community all at the same time. WIN-WIN-WIN.
The students and teachers are planning to continue their donations as each harvest is completed. As a big “thank you” to the group, SeaWorld is offering them an overnight trip to SeaWorld where they can see firsthand the manatees receiving the lettuce they grew.
Growing lettuce locally and feeding it to manatees, an endangered species, is quite the accomplishment. The Eco Club at this elementary school sure does know how to make a difference.
If you are interested in learning how to grow plants hydroponically or serve your community, do your research and put yourself out there. There are always opportunities, and you can always make a difference, too!