STUDENTS and teachers of Excelsior High School have embarked on a series of activities to maintain the green environment of the Mountain View Avenue-campus in Kingston.

A vibrant environment club, which maintains a greenhouse and recycles waste, and the school’s agricultural science programme are some of the initiatives that will ensure the institution does not become a concrete park like some urban area schools.

Excelsior’s interest in the environment stems back to the work of its founder A Wesley Powell, when the school moved to its present location from North Street in downtown Kingston in 1949.

“The Antrim property where we are located had a large number of lignum vitae trees and Mr Powell did not want to remove too many of them,” Rono Martin, biology teacher at Excelsior, told Career & Education.

“He ensured that as many as possible of them were preserved; he was a visionary. ‘Green’ for us (at Excelsior) is not a new phenomenon; it was there from inception,” he added.

The campus, which also houses the Excelsior Community College, features many types of trees, such as ackee, banana, mango, plum, and cherry.

Students and teachers of the school were willing to talk about their activities and display their plants at the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica’s (EFJ’s) second annual Earth Day expo at Devon House on April 15.

Of significance is the school’s environment club, which numbers 105 students from first through sixth form.

“We have just established a greenhouse with different plants, which we use as a tool to teach children about where the food we eat comes from,” noted sixth former Andreen Street.

“Over time, we want to create a specimen garden with plants on display so that students can know what the leaves and stems of each plant looks like and how to take care of them,” she added.

The greenhouse has been an eye-opener for the students, many of whom are from inner-city communities and are not used to agricultural activities.

“For example, most persons don’t know what a potato or tomato plant looks like,” said another sixth former Aneishka Christie. “(Recently), a student asked if pineapples grow on trees.”

Other plants in the greenhouse include peanut, peppers, blackcurrant or Ribena berry plant (from which the Ribena drink is made), red peas, gungo, onion, and papaya.

Each class at the school has an environment ambassador who automatically becomes an environment club member, but any other student who is interested may join.

The school also recycles paper and plastic bottles in collaboration with the Jamaica Recycling Company.

“Also, we recently installed a solar panel on the kitchen, which we use to boil water so we save gas,” said Christie.

Social studies teacher Janice Campbell, who also has responsibility for special projects at the school, recalled that a thrust to plant flowers and grass in dusty areas of the property was started by the students’ council about 10 years ago.

“(With the) planting trees and flowers at grade seven block, other persons started to plant in other areas and with that, the environment club was founded, which took it to a new level,” she said.

Campbell added that agricultural science was introduced about three years ago, and there are plans to plant food crops to supply the school’s canteen.

“Last year, we had some vegetables that had come to full term, but before we could reap them, they were reaped for us. But we haven’t allowed that to deter us,” she said.

Particularly exciting is the migration of butterflies to the Excelsior campus each September.

“Thousands of butterflies are attracted to the school because of all the lignum vitae trees. We don’t know where they come from or where they go. They procreate and then they disappear. It’s a beautiful sight that we look forward to,” said Campbell.

She added that there were plans to invite an entomologist to conduct studies there.