SJCHS garden is used as a teaching tool

Intermountain Catholic

+ Enlarge

Corbin Johnson, SJCHS science teacher, teaches students the art of gardening as part of the science curriculum. IC photo/Christine Young

OGDEN — The west side of Saint Joseph Catholic High School has received some landscaping improvements as a result of four SJCHS students’ Eagle Scout projects around a garden that was planted in 2009 as a physics project.

Charles Joseph built a patio and Jeffrey DeGrauw added a gazebo in 2011. In 2013, their younger brothers added to their projects when Robert Joseph built a sidewalk and Aaron DeGrauw created an outdoor classroom.

The garden was revived again in 2013 by the science classes. Corbin Johnson, SJCHS science teacher, finds the garden useful in his curriculum.

"Over the last couple of years it has become my responsibility to try to care for the garden, so my environmental science and earth science classes have been planting the garden," said Johnson. "We’ve had limited success because the quality of the soil is not that good, but our goal is to have classroom activities where students use soil testing kits to test the soil and learn the process of planting. The students choose and plant vegetables in the spring, and this fall we will be planting vegetables to try to make the garden more cyclical and to return some of the nutrients to the soil."

"It’s awesome," said Mikelle Weil, Parent Association vice president. "It’s such an improvement."

"The community involvement has been great," added Johnson. "Brandi Bosworth, [a Parent Association member], has been weeding and watering the garden all summer with the help of the groundskeeper."

Although the students don’t really get to see the fruits of their labor, they learn about the soil nutrients and soil quality, and for some it will be their first experience. The students like coming outside and working in the garden, especially in April when the weather is nice, Johnson said.