If you find yourself near the Easton E3 Learning Lab, you might spot a new feature: an ash wood bench. But this is no ordinary bench – it’s an homage to a beloved community member.
Rebecca Eldemire, a 2012 New Albany High School graduate, was a student loved by both teachers and classmates.
“Everybody who met her was her friend,” says Sandra Reed, E3 building coordinator and previous teacher of Eldemire. “She was a leader academically, she was a leader for the environment and she was a leader with people.”
Reed says that Eldemire was passionate about the environment. She showed up to every meeting for Reed’s middle school adventure club, even when she was too old to participate.
“She was one of the most passionate individuals I’ve ever met about the environment,” says Reed.
When she was tragically killed in 2015 at Miami University, a memorial bench was created from an ash tree from Reed’s front yard.
Engraved on the bench is a quote by Eldemire: “Go outside no matter what and sit.” Eldemire said it during her days as a student in Reed’s class, when Reed would have her students go outside and spend quiet time with nature.
The bench sits in the midst of a prairie garden, which has been an almost two-year beautification and education project.
The 8,000-square-foot area that surrounds the E3 building used to be a beat-up practice field covered in weeds. Now, the area is teeming with plants all native to Ohio, such as goldenrod, black-eyed Susan, milkweed and coreopsis. In total, the prairie is home to more than 30 different species.
Peter Barnes decided to take on the project as part of his National Geographic Educator Certification. Since “environment”
is one of the three Es in E3, he thought a prairie of native plants would be an efficient way to teach students about nature.
Barnes made the project into a student-led inquiry project, allowing the students to research and decide which plants to include.
The designing and planning stage began in fall 2019 with Barnes’ fifth grade class. In the early months of 2020, he had about 300 students helping with planting and weed removal.
Frankie Sveda, Gemma Persichett and Harlow Sittler at the E3 building’s learning garden.
Throughout the year, gardeners continued to plant additional in-season native flora.
“We’re hoping that they’ll come in cycles,” says Barnes, “so you might see some bloom stronger one year, and then two or three years later it might look different. They balance each other out.”
The prairie also attracts pollinators, not just great for the environment but perfect for classes to study.
“It attracts a lot of pollinator insects, particularly bees and butterflies,” says Barnes. “It’s important for the kids to think about how we can support these little creatures that make such a big impact on our lives.”
Classes from grades one to 12 are already using the prairie in their academic inquiry. Barnes says that on almost any day he can look out his classroom window to see students exploring the environment.
The project was funded through multiple grants from organizations such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and the BEEPS Foundation, a nonprofit founded in Eldemire’s memory.
The prairie sits alongside a wetland which was originally designed to be a retention pond. The students of New Albany, however, had other ideas.
Six years ago, students planted native species of trees and flowers in the wetland. The area now hosts a variety of wildlife from muskrats and deer to geese and macroinvertebrates.
“It’s providing an ecological niche, a habitat, for all these students,” says Reed. “The students use it as a lab. They go out there and do research.”
The prairie project was the perfect extension of what had already been done.
“So together,” says Reed, “you have this incredible resource of the wetland and the nature prairie as a classroom.”
Sarah Grace Smith is an editorial assistant. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
