Ms. Lisa Picker, then a Steger science teacher, Missouri Master Naturalist, and pollinator and native plant enthusiast, saw an opportunity to create a living outdoor classroom. In 2016 she received a major grant from the Webster School District Foundation and grants from Missouri Department of Conservation, Deer Creek Watershed Alliance, and Webster Groves Women's Garden Association to do that, installing a pollinator garden, named the Webster Groves School District Ecology Center Phase I: Pollinator Paradise.

In their ecology lessons, students had been learning about the links between native plants and pollinators. With the students' designs, Ms. Picker hired Native Landscape Solutions to install two demonstration gardens and a small prairie, which included a three-year maintenance contract. In 2020, with Steger science teachers and representatives from Central Office, MDC conducted a prairie burn, an important management practice and exciting event for students!

Since that contract ran out, she has been maintaining the gardens with a small group and has established a group Givens Elementary-connected families to continue this partnership to maintain the gardens, support student involvement, and reach out to the neighboring community.

Givens families and teachers working with Ms. Picker and other Great Rivers Missouri Master Naturalists, have taken on the mantle of the gardens and prairie and are deciding how to best utilize this incredible outdoor classroom and community space.