Kindergartners, college students work together to plant several trees.
The campus of East Tennessee State University will have at least 18 new trees thanks to University School's kindergarten class.
Friday morning, students in Mary Myron's kindergarten class, students in the College of Education and physical plant staff planted trees on the walking track near the soccer fields as the culminating project of this semester for both the kindergartners and education students.
"The trees, my children are learning to love," Myron said. "And to love science. They're outdoors. They're with their college friends who they really love. They've worked with their college friends all semester studying these trees."
Throughout this semester kindergartners learned about how trees are beneficial and the college students learned how to teach the kindergartners about science. Kindergartner Ciara Kennedy learned all about trees and was having fun planting new ones on campus.
"We're planting trees with our college friends," Ciara said.
She said it is important to plant trees "Because they give you stuff that you can have. They give you oxygen, paper, wood and they can give you food."
Kindergartner Mason Harrison said he would be proud to watch the trees grow throughout the 13 years he will be at University School and to know that he played a part in the beautification of the ETSU campus.
Myron was pleased that the college students were able to learn and that ETSU was setting an example for her children.
"And this is really a legacy to this wonderful collaborative effort," of planting trees. "So it's just a wonderful way to share knowledge and for my little ones to be able to understand how important this kind of learning is for their whole life. They see all of these people out here, all different ages being involved in learning."
Dr. Aimee Govett taught the course Science for Elementary Teachers to the college students participating in the tree planting project.
"This is actually a science content course for them so that they can, you know, integrate science, because science is so much more important in the K-6 grades," Govett said.
"It's actually part of the standards now and I know Tennessee is implementing newer standards, so they'll have to meet those. But also to give them some experience with actually implementing it. You know, they can't just learn about it, they have to learn how to translate that to little ones. And that's why we think this project is so great," Govett said.
"They don't teach for another year or so, so this gives them a little bit of insight into what it's going to be like."
Each tree will be named after one of the kindergartners who planted it. In 12 more years, on high school graduation day, the students will most likely be able to rest in the shade their trees will provide. The hope is that the students never forget the science lessons they learned this semester.
Junior Ashley Lommel is majoring in K-6 education and thought the experiences of the course were invaluable.
"I think that it needs to be hands-on and creative," Lommel said of her lesson plans. "And I think we've definitely learned that with these kids.
"I think the most amazing thing for me to see is that these kids knew more than I expected them to know. And I think you have to make it interesting, what you're teaching, or they won't learn it."
