SOUTH BEND — South Bend Community School Corp. has taken another step in building environmental science-themed pathways for students in fifth through 12th grades.
While new high school classes in sustainability and horticultural science are open to all, they may be especially appealing to students at Greene Intermediate Center who will be able to continue studies in those fields at New Tech at Riley and Washington high schools.
And, officials hope to get approval for the courses to simultaneously count toward high school and college credit at Ivy Tech Community College.
Greene Intermediate Center, a rural school south of the city with an outdoor learning center, was the first to adopt an environmental science-themed curriculum.
With no startup money, Greene’s program was built in recent years from scratch with the help of community partners such as the Purdue County Extension Service, area parks departments and Greening the Bend.
This school year, the environmental theme expanded to New Tech, now a magnet program of Riley, and Washington.
In coming years, it’ll grow with even more options.
With the new offerings, students at New Tech will focus on sustainability studies, while the Washington career and technical education pathway will allow those students to focus on landscape management.