Class adds 'More Nature'
By MANDY BOLEN Citizen Staff
Ashley Moore grew up in Big Pine Key and left her native Florida Keys to attend college in Arizona, where she is majoring in environmental and marine studies.
Eventually, Moore wants to teach high school students, but right now said the ideal job would be to continue installing all-native, outdoor classrooms in all Monroe County schools.
As part of her undegraduate degree requirements, Moore has implemented her own More Nature program at Sugarloaf School.
"My aim is to create a space in which students have the opportunity to learn about companionship and stewardship with the natural world," she said.
When finished, the all-native, outdoor classroom will be in the heart of the school's campus and will include plants that attract butterflies, Sugarloaf Principal Terri Axford said.
"She's also including a walking path," Axford said. "So that when the teachers and students are studying plants in science -- or the life cycle of the butterfly -- they will be able to use this classroom."
Moore presented her project idea to the Sugarloaf School Advisory Committee, and assured Axford and other administrators that it will not cost the school district anything.
Thus far, Moore has received donations of plants, machinery, labor, money and other materials from local nurseries and businesses. The Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority donated a rain barrel in which the garden can collect rain for irrigation.
"I worked on a similar project in Arizona, when I was observing a classroom for student teaching," she said.
The plants that are native to Arizona differ greatly from those in the Florida Keys.
The Sugarloaf outdoor classroom will include sea grape, herb of grace, Cuban jute, buttonwood, thatch palm, slash pine and milkweed to attract butterflies.
Moore also will design a curriculum for teachers to use at their will to ensure proper environmental education, she said.
The outdoor classroom likely will be finished in the next two to three weeks -- just in time for the students to celebrate the end of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.
"I wanted to come back to my community to give back," said Moore, who spent nine years at the Sugarloaf campus.
"The fact that she chose us makes you feel like you really contributed to the future of a student," Axford said.
To learn more about the project, visit http://morenature.blogspot.com.
mbolen@keysnews.com
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