2023
2023 was another busy year in the garden! The year started off with a flurry of activity, including planting a 36 tree arboretum and installing a beehive, as well as hosting our annual spring field trip with first grade students from Grandview Elementary School. In the spring we also mulched the whole garden, spruced up our existing trails, and held an invasive plant removal event. During the summer, we hosted two visits of the teen group from the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington, installed a number of new features in the gardens. In the fall we focused on cutting in same additional trails, putting the garden to bed for the winter, and building the last of our garden features for installing in the spring. In December we submitted a grant proposal to fund 2024 activities (spoiler alert - we got the grant!).
The Arboretum
In March and April, we planted a 36 tree arboretum in honor of the Ivy Tech State Board of Trustees meeting held on the Bloomington campus in the spring of 2023 - that is one tree for each of the trustees and chancellors in the Ivy Tech statewide system! A huge thank you to the Ivy Tech Bloomington Foundation for funding this project! Each unique tree is an Indiana native, and all trees are labelled with identification signs that include QR codes. Those QR codes will lead to websites that include more information on each tree, as well as a fun tree-themed activity (coming 2024 and beyond).
April Day of Service
Each April, Ivy Tech hosts a day of service in which Ivy Tech faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to volunteer their time in the community. To facilitate that, the school collects a number of volunteer opportunities throughout the community, and shares them to encourage participation. Although termed "Day of Service", the event actually lasts for a week! The Outdoor Learning Lab was able to host two day of service events - two work days, one of which included trail clean up and invasive plant removal, and the other included mulching in the garden. A great amount of work was completed both day, and we greatly appreciate our volunteers!
Before: A giant Autmn Olive
After: Nothing but a stump!
Visits to the Lab
We hosted three groups in the garden in 2023 - first graders from Grandview Elementary School and two visits from Boys and Girls Club from Bloomington.
We hosted 61 Grandview first grader in our second annual spring field trip, which focuses on plants. Students learn about seeds, how to plant them, how they move through the environment, parts of plants, and how to plant them. Along the way they complete crafts, use microscopes, sing songs, and plant both seeds and flowers. This year we expanded the visit to the afternoon with a hike on our then brand new trail and some extra planting time.
The Boys and Girls Club visitors were middle and early high school students. During thier first visit, we learned how to use and make dichotomous keys to identify trees. During their second visit, we collected leaves in the Lab, then headed into the ICLS to do paper chromatography to separate the pigments found in the leaves. The visitors also very much enjoyed visiting with our Madagascar hissing cockroaches!
Features added to the Outdoor Learning Lab this year
The bike rack is installed
The ball run goes in
The final ball run
Picking up the bees
The bees are home
Root viewers
The first playhouse
Our new arch
Informational kiosk
Fall Volunteer Days
As the weather got cooler, we held a couple of outdoor volunteer days that focused on expanding our trail system. We now have an arboretum extension associated with our main outer loop trail, one short inner loop connected to the space that will eventually be our outdoor classroom (hopefully summer 2024), and started on a longer trail also connected to the outdoor classroom.
When the weather turned too cold to comfortably work outside, we shifted inside, building or second arch, our second playhouse, and making great progress on the third playhouse!
