Private school students build rooftop garden
Galleria-area campus uses plants grown in aquaponics setup to teach about Texas weather challenges and growing on concrete
Students at a Galleria-area private school are trying their hand at aquaponics in a first-of-itstype rooftop garden.
Lettuce, peppers, bok choy and pear tomatoes sprout in the students’ fifth-floor classroom at Xavier Academy, which recently moved to a multistory office building in Uptown. The plants grow in PVC pipes and a makeshift greenhouse in the back of the classroom before being transplanted to the garden on the parking garage;s roof.
“I’m extremely proud as an instructor of such phenomenal kids that we’re the only school in the state of Texas with a rooftop garden,” teacher Robin Twymon said.
They plan on growing more as they learn how to adjust for Texas’ weather, the challenges of growing on concrete, and how to properly install solar panels to keep the plants watered. But for now, they are mastering basics like breaking up soil with their hands, a key step in creating their flourishing garden.
“I teach them to use their hands and break up the clumps of soil,” Twymon said. “When it’s broken up, the roots can truly move and really take hold and actually grow. That’s a whole other level of science that people don’t get when you’re just talking about it.”
The plants grow in soil on top of mulch, which is all on top of concrete. Last summer, when temperatures were at their peak, the concrete was hot enough to burn the roots of some of the plants. The students learned to raise the plants and construct solar panels that power a watering system that continuously waters the plants so they don’t die.
The garden, Twymon says, is entirely student-run.
“They do this on their own,” Twymon said. “If they have a bad day, they just come up to the roof and chill, have lunch and relax.”
Even though Xavier has a low student-to-teacher ratio, students had to sign up early to get into Twymon’s course. Aquaponics isn’t a mandatory science at Xavier, but some students are willing to take it anyway and double up on their science credits.
“We’re constantly learning, but it also doesn’t feel like it at all,” student Lauren Westfall said.
Aquaponics started as a club, but Xavier was proactive in creating the fourth-level science credit and allowing the students to build a garden on the roof.
It’s a subject that captivates students, Twymon said.
“To see a kid’s eyes light up when they’re learning something, and getting their hands dirty, and actually doing the work, that’s the biggest reward in the world,” said Twymon, who has been an educator for 20 years and has a doctorate in counseling education and master’s degrees in environmental science and chemistry.
The juniors who complete the course will continue to care for the garden until they graduate.
“Twymon will grill us if we don’t,” student Elise O’Halla said.
The rooftop garden will likely grow in size and scope, according to Twymon. There is a possibility of adopting pigs and goats from the Houston Humane Society, and the school is expecting more solar panels.
They are also trying to solidify a partnership with Texas A&M, said Twymon. The class recently went on a field trip to A&M to see its agriculture department and learn about all the things they can do with aquaponics.
“We just want to make sure the kids are truly exposed to everything that’s out there in the field of aquaponics and the field of agriculture,” Twymon said.
For the fish that died, the students held fish funerals on the roof.
“We would have a eulogy and a song picked out,” student Linnea Goncalves said. “Everybody was disappointed when I suggested we should pick ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ as the song.”