Tanner High students will have a variety of new opportunities ready for them when they return to school, including a commercial-grade greenhouse.

The greenhouse was constructed through a grant obtained by the Limestone County Career Technical Center. The Dekko Foundation awarded $30,000 toward the greenhouse in 2018, and Tanner High Principal Deborah Kenyon is ready to get every cent’s worth through project-based learning opportunities for students.

“My kids can gravitate and do hands-on, authentic learning here,” she said. “They’ll be able to grow things, sell to the community — flowers, plants, vegetables — but they’ll also be doing science things in there, botany and physical and earth science.”

The greenhouse will be open to students in all grades at Tanner High, from those in science and career tech courses to members of the school’s STEM club.

“I want it to be interdisciplinary,” Kenyon said. “I want it to be connected. I want them to understand our community.”

She hopes local farmers will team with the school to work with students and share information about operations and careers in the area related to the learning experiences they’ll gain in the greenhouse.

“Just getting them to understand all of that and how that works, just for agriculture, is huge,” Kenyon said. “It gives them a lot of insight into different career possibilities and career clusters.”

She said the teachers and Tanner community have been just as ecstatic about the new way students can be engaged in learning thanks to the greenhouse. She also thanked the school’s maintenance team for their help in getting it built and ready for students.