Cris Cornelssen, Winton Woods Elementary School science lab instructor, will admit she doesn’t have a green thumb. But that hasn’t stopped her from taking on the school’s new land lab that was funded with $10,000 from Wal-mart and help from many community partners. “I’m not good with plants,” said Cornelssen, “but I think it’s important to make nature real for our students.”

So important in fact that when Winton Woods City Schools Business Manager Steve Mathews and Forest Park Environmental Awareness Program Manager Wright Gwyn called her in February about the money available from Wal-mart, Cornelssen jumped right in. “I heard a radio program about rain gardens as I was driving back from Florida, and I knew right away that I had my project,” said Cornelssen.

The new land lab at Winton Woods Elementary not only has a rain garden that’s been planted in a specially-designed depression so that it collects surface run-off and allows that water to sink into the soil, it also has three-year composting bins and three 5’ x 32’ planting beds. Cornelssen said the school also hopes to develop the wooded site adjacent to the lab in the fall or spring, but first she has to find grant money.

“Kids are inside too much,” said Cornelssen. “This land lab gives us the opportunity to get students out of the classroom and make nature real with lessons that are hands on and hands in. I want them to develop a love for nature.”

“This is a hands-on discovery facility for the school,” said Gwyn, who Cornelssen said was the “driving force” behind the lab. While Cornelssen said that many of the lessons in the lab will be driven by students’ curiosity, Gwyn said that the composting bins will specifically allow students to see what organisms are in each time frame of composting and what ecosystems exist there. “The students will enjoy the lab and learn at the same time.”

WWES Principal Steve Denny agrees. “People say they do hands-on science, and we’re actually doing that. Students will be digging in the dirt, experimenting with soil types, and seeing the decay rates of organic matter—and it’s all directly tied into third and fourth grade content.”

The Winton Woods Elementary School Land Lab is a partnership between Winton Woods City Schools, Wal-Mart, Forest Park Environmental Awareness, W.H. Shroyer Nursery and Mill Creek Watershed Council of Communities.