Primer students from Allison Hogan’s class at the Episcopal School of Dallas spent Tuesday afternoon learning about the Merrell campus quarry and studying the habitat of different fish, insects, and other wildlife. The students also split their time building flower boxes for Habitat for Humanity.

The flower boxes, which were built by the fifth grade class during a trip to Wolf Run, were filled with six bright orange flowers. Primer students lined each box with rocks and dirt before carefully placing the bulbs in the dirt. Members of the Dallas-area Habitat for Humanity will deliver them to homes this week.

“The kids that get these flowers are going to love them!” one Primer student said.

“It’s good to help other people because it makes everyone smile,” another student said.

One of the school’s Founding Tenets, service to others, focuses students’ efforts on giving back to their community through acts of kindness and generosity.

After the flower beds were planted, students wandered down to the water with Andy Perry and Peter Lutken to study the habitat that hosts frogs, fish, and water insects. Students used nets to collect large and small samples of plants, as well as some minnows and beetles. After a picnic lunch they toured two other sustainable habitats: the campus’s butterfly garden and Geodesic Growing Dome.

The group will travel to the Texas Discovery Gardens and Children’s Aquarium next month to continue their study of different habitats.

To view photos from Primer’s visit, please click here.