Quick look: Saddleback High School is one of 10 Orange County public schools originally selected for a $10,000 Future Innovators Initiative grant from Hyundai. The school plans to use the funding to help develop a half-acre learning farm focused on science, sustainability and agriculture.
Students at Saddleback High School could soon have a new place to study everything from soil health and water conservation to biology, chemistry and engineering, all without leaving campus.
The Santa Ana Unified school is one of 10 Orange County public schools originally selected to receive $10,000 through the Future Innovators Initiative by Hyundai, a STEM education funding program launched this year by Hyundai Motor America in partnership with the Orange County Schools Bright Futures Foundation.
Representatives from Hyundai and the Bright Futures Foundation visited Saddleback on Sept. 21 to celebrate the award and learn more about the school’s plans.
Saddleback plans to use the grant to help launch the first phase of its RAICES Learning Farm, a half-acre outdoor laboratory designed to connect classroom lessons to agriculture, sustainability and other real-world applications.
“We’re trying to take education from the classroom and bring it outside,” said Moises Plascencia, Farm to School programs coordinator for Santa Ana Unified. “And in doing so, we’re actually creating a regenerative farm, so we can have kids learn about sciences, about language, about history.”
Plans for a living laboratory
According to information provided by the Bright Futures Foundation, the $10,000 will help fund a greenhouse, irrigation systems, composting stations, tools, seeds and safety equipment for the first phase of the project.
Saddleback plans to connect the farm with its International Baccalaureate and biomedical coursework, giving students opportunities to explore food access, water conservation, soil health and sustainability through hands-on activities. School staff also envision eventually providing student-grown produce to the campus kitchen for use in school meals.
During the Sept. 21 visit, students practiced soil sampling and composting alongside educators and community partners.
For Saddleback senior Angelina, the proposed farm could expand how students learn about their surroundings.
“For us, it opens up a whole new realm of possibilities of learning about different plant growth, how our environment interacts with our world, but also how we’re able to help contribute with our environment,” she said.
Junior Isabella said she is particularly interested in the hands-on learning the farm could provide.
“It’s been something that I’m passionate about, and I really love to learn about growing food and where it comes from and how it helps us,” she said. “A lot of people learn hands-on, so I think that would be very beneficial if we had more classes where we learned upfront on how to do that stuff.”
Investing in hands-on STEM
Hyundai launched the Future Innovators Initiative in April in partnership with the Orange County Schools Bright Futures Foundation, initially committing $100,000 to support hands-on STEM learning at 10 Orange County public schools.
The inaugural program invited schools to propose projects involving equipment, curriculum enhancements and other programming designed to strengthen STEM instruction. Orange County, home to Hyundai Motor America’s North American headquarters in Fountain Valley, was selected as the initiative’s first region.
For Angelina, the project is also about what students can contribute beyond campus.
“I believe that this farm will not only help the nutrition values of students,” she said, “but also to understand the importance of creating these farms and also creating these opportunities for students to learn about agriculture and how to benefit our community.”
For more information about the Future Innovators Initiative and other programs supporting Orange County schools, visit the Orange County Schools Bright Futures Foundation webpage.