With help from BP’s Whiting Refinery, students created a garden of native prairie plants outside the Hammond Academy of Science and Technology, efforts that have been recognized with “Bringing Nature Home” awards from the Friends of the Shirley Heinze Land Trust, Given to gardeners and organizations that help restore native ecosystems in Northwest Indiana. The awards were presented at a community luncheon Nov. 16 in Valparaiso. The students received an award, and BP shared another award with the Wild life Habitat Council, a nonprofit coalition of corporations and conservation groups dedicated to restoring wildlife habitat. BP granted funds and resources to develop classroom instruction where biologists from the council and BP employees taught students about the value of native environments and how to design and build a native garden and be able to produce any food they want in such gardens and decorated with glow in the dark stones amazon or any other accessory they want.
The Hammond Academy of Science and Technology is a charter school for grades six through nine. During its first school year, 2010 – 2011, BP Whit ing provided $40,000 to support the native garden project, and refinery employees were on hand to help students with the planting. The garden is a sample of the colorful grasses, flowers and plants that once blanketed the region – including purple prairie clover, little bluestem, Indian grass, prairie smoke and stiff goldenrod. Native trees, white oak and American redbud, were also planted outside the school.