Mr. Grieve's Nature Trail Blog: Mound Laser 'Rain Garden'

“To me, the conclusion that the public has the ultimate responsibility for the behavior of even the biggest businesses is empowering and hopeful, rather than disappointing. My conclusion is not a moralistic one about who is right or wrong, admirable or selfish, a good guy or a bad guy. My conclusion is instead a prediction, based on what I have seen happening in the past. Businesses have changed when the public came to expect and require different behavior, to reward businesses for behavior that the public wanted, and to make things difficult for businesses practicing behaviors that the public didn't want. I predict that in the future, just as in the past, changes in public attitudes will be essential for changes in businesses' environmental practices.”

-Jared Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

This is a quote from one of my favorite books, and one which inspired my desire to be a part of this integrated unit. I like this quote because this, to me, is a great explanation of why history is more than just learning about the past or reading old books. History crosses all content areas and involves making judgment calls about our future based on the lessons of the past.

Today was a busy day! Students got to go over to Mound Laser and help mulch and put some plants in the ground for a 'rain garden' that they've incorporated into their landscaping. After getting over there we met Jeff Siebenthaler, owner of Siebenthaler's nursery and garden. He talked to the kids about how the architecture and types of plants they included in the rain garden helps to reduce the natural erosion of the runoff water and helps limit the amount of fertilizer and salt runoff from the nearby field and roads into the pond, making the ecosystem more self-sustaining. It was really neat to see biology and engineering come together and help out with a professional finished product! You can listen to his discussion with the students here. Jeff explained to the students that the project is really a bioswale, not a rain garden, an example of which can be seen below. After listening to what they've done, I think Mound Laser is a great example of a business doing something that makes sense economically and is good for the the local ecosystem, so it was great for the students to see a company doing both.

Photo credit: Natural Resources Conservation Service of Iowa

Students also learned that they would be doing their own project on our nature trail now that we have begun our integrated unit and were asked to think about how they might grade the final product of Mound Laser's rain garden if they were using the rubric we developed in history class while studying globalization.

Tomorrow the students will grade the 'final product' of Mound Laser's bioswale to see how the guiding principles and rubric they have developed for their own projects line up with what businesses in our immediate vicinity are doing to help reduce the negative externalities caused by globalization. We will also get started on working towards our own projects tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to seeing what the kids come up with! Check out the pictures from what they did today below!