CHICAGO HEIGHTS, Ill. – The Barack Obama School of Leadership and STEM in Chicago Heights is turning the soil into a syllabus.
What we know:
Students are selling produce and schooling the neighborhood on how to flip a seed into value.
“Here’s the watermelon right here,” said Logan Jamison, a student at the school. “Oh, that’s cracked open, that’s cracked open. Oh man, that could have been real good.”
Logan reads the field like a playbook. A watermelon cracked open shows the cost of time and sun.
The kids turn dirt into value and value into lessons you can carry home in a bag.
“Yeah, this is, wow. We have really big banana peppers,” Logan said.
“I’ve grown a variety of things from banana peppers, green tomatoes, and zucchini,” said Keanna, a 6th grade student.
Why you should care:
Keanna stands in a tomato suit — not just for show, it’s strategy. The students learn how to grow the food and how to sell the idea.
“This program has been really good to us by being able to give us a chance to engage with our community and to contribute to our community,” Keanna said.
Principal Lori Colbert calls it “STEM in motion.” Students break down costs, cut prices, and use fractions to prove every equation can feed somebody.
“They’re learning how to harvest the crops,” Colbert said. They’re learning about the financial aspect behind it. We’re making sure that we sell our products at a fraction of the cost. So, they’re looking at the cost at grocery stores and then using fractions and percentages to bring those prices down for our community.”
And Logan is already thinking past today’s harvest.
“This is our new garden. We haven’t grown too much plants yet, but we are going to grow some more,” Logan said.
What’s next:
The farmer’s market runs every Wednesday morning through Oct. 1 at Barack Obama School of Leadership and STEM in Chicago Heights.