Madison Middle School has been awarded a new greenhouse that will enhance learning experiences for students. Related Articles Local News | Willoughby Hills Bishop Road bridge to be completed by end of October Local News | Riverside Chalk Festival 2024 features wide range of student designs Local News | Mentor Public Library offering Puzzle Swap Day Local News | St. Gabriel church plans Blue Mass Local News | Mentor Public Library hosting nature journaling adventure The school will receive the structure at no cost through a relatively new grant program called the Greenhouse Sustainability Project. This program was started in 2023 by Partners in Science Excellence and Arcadia GlassHouse. PSE is a Northeast Ohio-based organization that promotes and fosters inquiry-based learning in the sciences. Arcadia GlassHouse, located in Madison Village, designs and manufactures greenhouses for residential property owners, schools and public gardens throughout the United States. Arcadia owner and President Jeff Kenyon wants to encourage organic and sustainable gardening in Lake County schools by donating a greenhouse to each grant recipient selected through PSE. The 8-by-12-foot greenhouse awarded to Madison Middle School, which includes materials and professional installation by Arcadia, is valued at $10,000. Madison Middle School teachers Melissa Colarik, Liz Naininger and Chrissy Vilcheck united to write the grant application to obtain the greenhouse. Colarik teaches health and physical education, while Naininger and Vilcheck are both science teachers at Madison Middle School. “The greenhouse will be a great addition to our outdoor classroom and school garden,” Colarik said. It’s anticipated that the greenhouse will be installed by the end of November at Madison Middle School, which consists of grades six through eight. The school is at 6079 Middle Ridge Road in Madison Township. Colarik said science and health students at the middle school both will benefit from experiences involved in using a greenhouse. Eighth-grade science students, when they learn about reproduction, start growing plants from seeds in their classrooms, using apparatus like grow lights and heat mats. “Which is why we applied for the greenhouse — so we could get the ‘jungles’ out of the classrooms and into a better space for it,” Colarik said. Eighth-grade health students, meanwhile, do a research project to find nutritional values of the foods they plant in the school garden. “They also have to research growing times and conditions, and then they go out and will plant and harvest,” Colarik said. The grant application cited some other educational benefits that a greenhouse will offer: • Students study the greenhouse effect, so having direct access to a greenhouse would allow a more enriching and hands-on learning experience. • Students can study the types of energy and heat transfers associated with a greenhouse, such as convection, conduction, and radiation. • The school’s science club members could use the greenhouse as well, since they have begun planting seeds with the use of hydroponics. Madison Schools Superintendent Angela Smith said the new greenhouse will fulfill the strategic vision for the outdoor space when the school was constructed more than 11 years ago. “When we built this building, it was part of the plan to use the whole school property and bring in sustainable learning opportunities for our students,” Smith said, in an announcement about the greenhouse on the district’s website. “It took teachers with a passion for this work to make this dream a reality.”