The annual spring sale hosted by the Beatrice High School science club is happening this week. The event takes place in the school’s greenhouse, which was initiated several years ago as a grant project by Dr. Joan Christen. BHS teacher Paula Heinz has been managing the greenhouse and plant sale for the past five years. She mentioned that students from the science club and botany classes play a vital role in assisting with the sale.
Paula Heinz expressed her desire to see her students gain essential knowledge about plants through this project. Her dual-credit botany class is crucial to its success, and she aims to involve agricultural classes in the future. She emphasized that students are taught about plant structures and processes, such as cells, transpiration, nutrients, and water requirements for photosynthesis.
The plants sold at the sale are ordered from plugs from commercial greenhouses since BHS holds a distributor’s license and does not develop its own plant varieties. The selection of plants is based on new and interesting varieties that are easy to care for. Heinz hopes that students will learn about plant care, greenhouse maintenance, and skills that could lead to careers in landscaping, plant science, genetics, gardening or lawn care.
The sale primarily features annual bedding plants with a few perennials included. These plants are suitable for pots and landscaped beds. The sale hours are Wednesday to Friday from 3:45-5 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m.-noon. Interested individuals should park in the high school parking lot and enter through the front doors before proceeding past the main staircase to the back of the school where the greenhouse is located.
In conclusion, this spring sale hosted by Beatrice High School science club aims to teach students essential knowledge about plants through hands-on experience of caring for them in a greenhouse setting while generating funds for scholarships for seniors planning to major in science in college or purchase science equipment .