Chartiers Valley middle school students make their mark on Bridgeville garden

A project by students at Chartiers Valley Middle School will leave a lasting impact on Bridgeville for years to come.

This year, students embarked on a multi-grade, cross-subject endeavor to beautify a new butterfly-pollinator garden off Baldwin Street in Bridgeville, said science teacher Tracy Brackin.

“It was inspiring to see the students’ excitement about the project grow as they worked,” Brackin said. “Getting to witness the realization that they were creating a space that was really going to happen, a gift to their community that many of them live within walking distance of and a place they could come back to visit long after they have graduated from Chartiers Valley was amazing to watch.”

Funding from an “Empowerment Collaborative” grant supported the project, said Middle School Principal James Pegher.

“It’s a program that does project-based learning in Appalachia,” Pegher said.

The school partnered with Bridgeville Borough, he said, to help establish the garden space.

CV literature and reading classes created poems, and the orchestra recorded a piece of music that the public will be able to listen to using a QR code at the garden.

Social studies classes researched the history of the area, and the art classes worked on a glass installation there, with housing created by students in a technical education/woodshop class, Pegher said.

Life skills and emotional support students went to the park to help plant on May 23.

“It was wonderful to work with the borough to make it happen,” Pegher said.

Brackin’s students investigated native plants and learned about the logistics of gardening, along with researching the light, soil and water requirements; plants that flower from spring through fall; and the space needed for them to grow, she said.

Paraprofessional Sandy Mihaly helped with that process, Brackin said.

“The students did a great job of combining skills from science, math and tech-ed classes in the proposals that they put together,” Brackin said. “They worked together in groups, found compromises when making decisions and made sure that all students felt a sense of belonging within the group.

“They were able to apply so much of what we have taught them to come up with a solution to an authentic task.”