The Beatrice High School science club is hosting its annual spring sale this week. This event, which takes place in the school’s greenhouse, has been a project initiated several years ago by Dr. Joan Christen as a grant project. For the past five years, BHS teacher Paula Heinz has been managing the greenhouse and plant sale. She mentioned that the science club and botany students play a crucial role in assisting with the sale.
The money generated from the sale is utilized to purchase science equipment and provide scholarships for seniors planning to major in science in college. Heinz expressed her desire for her students to gain essential plant knowledge through this project, emphasizing that her dual-credit botany class is crucial to its success, and she plans to involve agricultural classes in the future.
She stated that students are taught about plant structures and processes such as cells, transpiration, nutrients, and water requirements for photosynthesis. The plants sold at the sale are ordered from plugs from commercial greenhouses since BHS holds a distributor’s license and does not develop its own plant varieties. The selection of plants is based on new and interesting varieties that are easy to care for.
Heinz hopes that students will learn about plant care, greenhouse maintenance, and skills that could lead to careers in landscaping, plant science, genetics, gardening or lawn care. The sale primarily features annual bedding plants with a few perennials included suitable for pots and landscaped beds. The sale hours are Wednesday to Friday from 3:45-5 p.m., and Saturday from 9 am to noon. Interested individuals are advised to park in the high school parking lot and enter through the front doors before proceeding past the main staircase to the back of the school where the greenhouse is located.
In conclusion, this annual spring sale hosted by Beatrice High School Science Club aims to provide an opportunity for students