By Kris Goracke

Reporter

Research shows that giving back to the community boosts students’ self-esteem, instills a sense of empathy, and establishes a lifelong commitment to being a positive force in their communities. Coupled with learning lifelong skills, this describes Glacial Hills Elementary School’s after-school club.

Their Conservation Crew website states, “The after-school club is part of the Conservation Club for Minnesota. Conservation Crew is a student-led extracurricular school program for middle schoolers. Students enhance their leadership abilities through service learning by designing and executing conservation projects that benefit their schools and communities.”

The program provides the necessary support and resources for student success. By employing a student-led approach, participants learn about conservation issues relevant to their lives and feel empowered to find solutions. Each crew chooses its focus and receives resources to create a tailored plan, including a $3,000 teacher stipend and access to Conservation Minnesota staff and industry experts. This hands-on learning approach encourages students to research, understand, and actively engage in improving local conservation efforts.

This year, the club, consisting of third through sixth-grade students, focused on Holly Skogan, a city park located directly adjacent to Glacial Hills Elementary School in Starbuck. “We began with the question, ‘How can we fix this and make it better for others?’” said after-school teacher Nate Lund. “The kids walked through the park and noticed the old bridge was unsafe and needed repair, and the walking paths were almost nonexistent due to the many natural springs and a creek that flowed through. And so, that became a priority for our project for the year,” he said.

In October, the students began planning. They studied water, erosion, and simple bridge designs to understand the best way to tackle their project. They researched how to control erosion so the paths would not be destroyed. They also explored the best materials for the project to prevent erosion, fix the existing tiling, create a durable path, and build a bridge. 

Once the students completed their research, they created a budget to send to the Conservation Minnesota staff. The program receives $1,000 from the state. Through careful budgeting and a generous donation of rocks for rip-rapping from Miexel’s, the students made their plan a reality.

Over the winter months, the after-school club began designing and building the 16-foot bridge. The construction involved learning math and calculations on measurement and basic construction skills. The club met once every two weeks, but as spring arrived, they started meeting each week to complete their project.

Once the weather turned nice, the students and Lund headed outside to put their plans into action. The work focused on digging the mud, rip-rapping under the bridge and around the creek to avoid flooding on the paths, laying down erosion control matting, creating the paths and placing large rocks to edge them, and tamping crushed rock on the paths to decrease washout. 

“The project was rewarding for everyone.  It taught the students about teamwork, thinking of others, and life skills such as creating and building, but the most important lesson, I think, is that the students thought about what their purpose is and how that purpose fits in the community they are a part of.  For these students, they learned their purpose was to take care of where they live and give back,” said Lund.

“Students in the Conservation Crew at Glacial Hills Elementary are already scheming some pretty big ideas on continuing to impact their community next year! We have sixth-grade students asking if they can come back for the after-school club and help out on next year’s project because they want to do something good for their community,” said Lund.

Conservation Crew operates in schools statewide. During the 2023-2024 school year, the program expanded to over 33 schools, with 51% being Title 1 schools. The program fosters lifelong leadership skills, provides conservation opportunities in under-resourced areas, deepens students’ connection to nature, and supports teachers and students for success. 

A grant from the Manitou Fund, Xcel Energy, CenterPoint Energy, and the George Family Foundation supports Conservation Crew.