Plant Science

Patrick Getchis' Plant Science class, at The Dalles Wahtonka High School
by Bella Byrd

Plant science is a class that involves growing food for the community while learning science.  We learn through our own experiments and inquiry projects.  

The class started with students designing a small school farm.  We drew the garden layouts, square footage, and began raising our own plants from seed in the greenhouse.  As our plants grew, we completed a 6 week experiment on composting.  I researched the effect of temperature on organic decay.   

We are also doing inquiry projects.  My group is designing a native plant garden for the Confluence Project at our high school.  All plants need to be drought tolerant and important to Native Americans.  The art class is painting a mural and making sculptures for a sitting area in the garden.  Other groups are designing irrigation systems, vermicomposting, designing propagation boxes, and solar panels to heat their mini greenhouses. 

Once our first harvest was ready, we brainstormed what to do with the food.  We voted on having a salad party and donating the rest to the food pantry.  We are getting ready to seed crops for our springtime market! 



Students from Mr. Getchis' Plant Science course brief Superintendent Candy Armstrong on the process they used to research, plan, and implement a series of raised bed growing spaces for growing produce year-round