A fun-filled school year continues at the Castle Valley Center. As the weather continues to warm, the school is looking to implement hydroponic gardens into its teaching repertoire. CVC is hosting a fundraiser to purchase the necessary materials to achieve this. Principal Amy Bell joined the KOAL Newsroom to discuss the school year thus far and how the public can get involved with the school.

“We’ve had a lot of schoolwide activities trying to do some indoor things. One of the things that we do over at our school is we’ve been exploring with some Bee-Bots. It’s a kind of STEM technology that helps our students learn with mini robot devices. That’s been a lot of fun,” explained Principal Bell. “We’re hoping it gets warm soon because our kids want to get outside and play.”

Bell discussed how the Castle Valley Center prepares for warmer weather: “We’re always looking for real-world opportunities for our students to learn. Our students don’t always learn in a typical way that other students do. They learn through real life situations. And so at our school, we have life skills areas where they learn shopping. But embedded in all of those things, we have a little grocery store, a clothing section, a little home center. But we do that because embedded in those centers is academic learning.”

The principal continued,” Our students often will get the academic learning if it’s in a real situation. So, you know, when they go to their little grocery store, they’re learning how to match and sort, learn things by size and how to group items.”

To aid in these real-world experiences, the school is looking to purchase hydroponic gardens. To accomplish this, the school is partnering with Farm to Fork, an organization that, according to its website, aims to” enrich the connection communities have with fresh, healthy food and local food producers by changing food purchasing and education practices at schools and preschools.”

Principal Bell explained the purpose behind these gardens: ” It’s not just about growing a garden. It’s embedded with all kinds of academics for our students. And so we’re really, really excited about that … The gardens will allow us not only to grow, but they will also help with measuring and counting, following checklists and doing different tasks.”

The equipment for these gardens costs $5000, so in addition to the funding they receive from Farm to Fork, they are searching for community donations. “We are asking if anybody’s willing to make some donations. They can go to our school website, and we have a little button there that they can donate if they’re interested in helping support us.” Bell added,” We’re trying to get the money so that we can start that system. Hopefully, if we can get the money earned in the spring, we can do one session with our gardens.”

Donations can be made by calling the school at 435-637-9150 or by visiting the following link.

Closing out our conversation, Principal Bell shared,” We’re just so grateful. And if you see us out and about in the community, stop and say hi to our kids. We’re always looking for people to engage and interact with us.”

For more information on Castle Valley Center, visit its website or follow the school on Facebook.