Agriculture Teacher Ben Skipor introduced an addition of a greenhouse to his classroom covered by a grant, community donations, and the FSD 145 school district this year.
“It was definitely hundreds of thousands of dollars and of that about one hundred and twenty thousand dollars I was able to fund from a grant application and community donations, from community members and businesses and the remainder of the funds were paid from the school district,” Skipor said.
Skipor wanted a new greenhouse so his students had a lab space nearby. Two years ago, he started looking for the money to build a greenhouse attached to his classroom using grant money.
“The main reason for constructing it next to my classroom was so that students didn’t have to go from the classroom to walk outside and have to go to another facility to do labs and other works,” Skipor said.
Skipor hopes the greenhouse will get more students interested in his classes.
“We use the green house for all the agriculture science classes that I teach, which includes the agricultural biology class, the horticulture science class, and urban agriculture.” Skipor said.
Most students look forward to this new lab space because it introduces them to a new learning environment.
“When I asked students from my urban agriculture class ‘Why did you sign up for this class?’ Most of the students raised their hands because they heard that we get to go outside.” Skipor said.
Skipors hard work towards funding this greenhouse is finally in operation and has the students excited to learn more about agriculture.
