Science teacher Ms. Glydia Chan’s 6th Period, Urban Ecology, plans to improve the LACES garden by introducing a hydroponic ecosystem along with planting more edible fruits and vegetables. Using money won in the Heroes for Zero contest, a K-12 project that encourages kids to make their school “Zero Net Energy (ZNE) Ready” in 2020, they are aiming to beautify parts of the LACES campus by adding sustainable projects to improve our school’s plantlife with the $25,000 prize.
This is the first year Chan has taught Urban Ecology at LACES, and the class focuses on urban planning and sustainability. The class, consisting mostly of LACES seniors, has planned multiple projects to add sustainable options to the campus. This year, they are tackling the LACES garden, a mostly unused part of the campus that mostly has planters full of flowers and an occasional stray cat litter.
Overseer of the project, Mick Everist, has provided first hand experience to the class and helped them form plans in regards to the garden.
“The original story is that we were gonna enter this contest for LAUSD called Heroes for Zero. We would have to enter the contest for a chance to win $25,000 to make the campus more sustainable. When we contacted Ms. Lesure about this and she told us we had actually won the contest back in 2020. Because of the quarantine, we weren’t able to use the money. So instead, we decided to make a plan to use the money for the school,” said Everist.
Initially, the class wanted to implement improvements to the water piping and faucets, but they were rejected due to the costs and the time it would take to change internal facilities of the school. Senior Juniper Vasquez proposed the idea to use hydroponics throughout the garden.
A hydroponic ecosystem is a method of growing plants where the roots are submerged in water. This soil-less method uses water and liquid fertilizer. The hydroponic system that is being used is a triangular prism. However, there were complications with the actual building of it.
“The box included no instructions and all the websites we looked up were like decades old. The pieces were poor quality, some of the pipes were too long or too short, but after searching thoroughly online I found a page and a half of instructions, in French,” said Everist.
Despite the struggle for an instruction manual, the hydroponic ecosystem is in the process of being built.
Alongside the hydroponic ecosystem, Urban Ecology also plans to improve the look and functionality of the garden. They’ve been cleaning up the garden, scrubbing the benches and tables, cutting weeds, and adding mulch to
the trees.
“We’re trying to actually garden, not just build the hydroponic system,” Everist said. “Our next unit is our garden unit and we’re trying to get a gardening teacher to come in to teach us how to garden so we can start planting stuff in the garden beds, strawberries and potatoes, maybe carrots too.”
