Bowling Green City Schools is partnering with the Toledo Zoo to introduce Project PRAIRIE to the district.

Jodi Anderson, secondary curriculum coordinator, explained the program at the May board of education meeting.

“We are always excited for new opportunities for our students,” she said.

Anderson said that as a former science teacher and trained wildlife biologist, she is a little biased toward the project, and very excited.

Anderson alluded to the BioBLitz that was done at Wintergarden/St. John’s Preserve in the fall with students from Crim Elementary.

The BioBlitz was in partnership with the Toledo Zoo, Bowling Green State University and Bowling Green City Schools, and it had students taking an inventory of all the living organisms that are found in a given area.

The opportunity for Bowling Green to take part in Project PRAIRIE started with converstaions at that event.

The prairies will be at the middle school and Kenwood Elementary, Anderson said.

“A site like this means that students and teachers can walk right out the door anytime … and the opportunities for the types of lessons they will learn is endless,” Anderson said.

According to the zoo’s website, Project PRAIRIE extends a Wild Toledo prairie initiative into local classrooms by utilizing the flower installations as living labs. It is an inquiry-based education program that trains students and their teachers to use native prairie habitats for citizen science projects that contribute to a larger body of global research to make a difference in the natural world.

Toledo Zoo conservation staff installs urban prairie on the property of participating schools while zoo education staff trains teachers and students to use the prairies for citizen science and follows up with related classroom programming.

PRAIRIE stands for PRAiries that InvigoRate Inquiry Learning.

You can’t just put a prairie in any convenient spot, Anderson said. It needs to be in a certain location with certain requirements and they were able to locate these two spots.

Each location is approximately one-quarter acre.

Students will be able to take part in the prairie installation, and Anderson encouraged patience as the sites will not look pretty at the start.

It is a three-year commitment to install each prairie and students not only will help with the installation but also the maintenance.

There is the potential for expansion, she said.

Anderson has assured him there is no cost to the district for this program, said Superintendent Francis Scruci.

The district will be able to network with other schools, including those in Toledo, Maumee and Perrysburg, who already have prairies.

“It is just another example of citizen science, where it’s more than the students going out and being in the prairie and doing the lessons. Technology makes it really easy for students to now contribute to the global network of scientific information,” Anderson said.

Installation will start soon, and she said she hopes to add some signage that says “Prairie in Progress” to let the community know what is going on.