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WATCH NOW: Harborside Academy students experience hands-on learning at Pennoyer Park | Local News

Harborside Academy students got the chance to participate in a hands-on science lesson at Pennoyer Park, partnering with the city and the Root-Pike Watershed Initiative Network to plant native plants in the infiltration basin.

Some 120 ninth-grade science class students planted native species that are a food source for birds and pollinators on Thursday and Friday.

Chelsea Snowden-Smith, an engineer technician at the City of Kenosha Department of Public Works, organized the project, along with Christi Heuser, environmental education specialist for Root-Pike WIN. Students also searched for fossils and learned about the Pike River watershed and general swim safety from Heuser.

The project comes after the City removed Phragmites, an invasive plant species, from the basin in July.

Snowden-Smith brought around 40 species of native plants for the students to plant, she said, such as Blue Flag Iris, Butterfly Weed, Western Sunflower and more.

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“This is one of the handful of native plantings that we have around town,” Snowden-Smith said. “There’s some down at Simmons Island, where they have the new permeable pavement and infiltration basin over there. At Anderson Park, we’re redoing the rain gardens there too.”

Harborside Academy biology teacher Karen Sens brought the first batch of students for the project Thursday. The 26 ninth-graders were split into groups of two, with one planting with Snowden-Smith and the other walking over to the mouth of Pike River for watershed education and fossil searching with Heuser.

Snowden-Smith said a big perk of projects like these for school-age kids is showing them all the options available for environmental work.

“One of the things that we really wanted to touch on was how much there is in the environment that are available to kids,” she said. “This is a part of an engineering goal for the city, it’s part of pollution prevention, it’s part of all these different things that you can go into. So if you like to be outside or you want to do something with the environment, it’s a new way for kids to kind of engage.”

At the infiltration basin, Snowden-Smith instructed students on digging holes and planting. Two students were in charge of digging the holes, and the rest of the students were divided into groups of “droppers” and “planters.” Snowden-Smith said the goal was to have the entire infiltration basin filled with plants by the time the last Harborside group finished on Friday.

Harborside Assistant Principal Anna Bosco, who accompanied the group for the field trip, said learning outside of the classroom is an important tenet for the school.

“Our (learning) doesn’t have to take place within the four walls,” Bosco said. “We believe in making real-world connections.”

Heuser said partnerships with schools are a great opportunity to teach more people about the watershed and its importance.

“A lot of people aren’t aware of what watershed they live in, what that even means how they have an impact on it,” Heuser said. “And a lot of our push this year as an organization is to get more native plants in the ground for Storm water infiltration, so (this) just ended up being perfect.”

11 photos of wildlife returning to Pritchard Park

Rusty Patched

A rare, endangered rusty patched bumblebee is pictured here on Aug. 4 at Racine’s Pritchard Park.


Courtesy of Simone Sorensen

Simone Sorensen

Simone Sorensen

Simone Sorensen is half of the duo, along with Maddie Ball, who first found the endangered rusty patched bumblebee at Pritchard Park while working with Root-Pike WIN, which manages much of Pritchard Park’s wildlife on behalf of Racine County, which owns the park.


ADAM ROGAN,

Rusty Patched

Rusty Patched

An endangered rusty patched bumblebee is pictured on Aug. 4 at Pritchard Park.


Courtesy of Simone Sorensen

Simone Sorensen

Simone Sorensen

Simone Sorensen photographs a plant in September 2021 in Pritchard Park in Racine, near where she and Maddie Ball discovered the endangered rusty patched bumblebee that summer.


ADAM ROGAN, Journal Times file photo

Monarch’s meeting

Monarch's meeting

Monarch butterflies fly together Sept 14 at Pritchard Park, Racine.


ADAM ROGAN,

Dave Giordano and Anna

Dave Giordano and Anna

Dave Giordano, right, spends time with his daughter on Sept. 14 at Pritchard Park, located at the intersection of Ohio Street and Durand Avenue (Highway 11) in Racine. At the park, likely thanks to the efforts of the Root-Pike Watershed Initiative nonprofit that Giordano is executive director of, the endangered rusty patched bumblebee was rediscovered.


ADAM ROGAN,

Monarch meeting

Monarch meeting

Dave Giordano, executive director of the Root-Pike Watershed Initiative Network, said he’d never seen so many monarch butterflies in one place as he did Tuesday afternoon in the restored prairie in Pritchard Park at the corner of Ohio and 21st streets. Here, four monarchs aid in the pollination process near a patch of golden rods, the plant with the yellow flowers at left. As many as 10 monarchs were seen near one another when Giordano was being interviewed by a Journal Times reporter for a story to be published this weekend on Root-Pike WIN’s successes in restoring native species’ habitats in southeastern Wisconsin — and on a discovery last month of an endangered species that has apparently re-emerged in Racine County.


Adam Rogan


A monarch butterfly in Pritchard Park

A monarch butterfly in Pritchard Park

A monarch butterfly, center, pollinates in Pritchard Park on Sept. 14, 2021.


ADAM ROGAN,

A bee meeting

A bee meeting

Two bees settle on flowers on Sept. 14 at Pritchard Park in Racine, performing the indispensable act of pollination.


Adam Rogan


A hand for wildlife

A hand for wildlife


ADAM ROGAN,

A little wildlife

A little wildlife

Anna, daughter of Root-Pike WIN Executive Director Dave Giordano, spends time with the plantlife her dad is working to encourage in Pritchard Park on Sept. 14.


ADAM ROGAN,

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