Students Eat Up Sustainable Gingerbread Lessons

Pottstown Middle School students teamed up with students from The Hill School top build "sustainable gingerbread houses."

Blogger's Note: The following was submitted by The Hill School.

Katie Scanlan, The Hill Shool’s High Meadows Foundation Chair of Sustainability, took five students from Hill’s Environmental Science Club to the Pottstown Middle School last week to work with students there to create “sustainable” gingerbread houses. 

Hill’s Environmental Science students participated in this fun and educational activity this past weekend and were excited to share it with younger students.  

 “In addition to learning the basics of Green Building Design, students applied what they have learned through an activity which will result in the construction of gingerbread houses that utilize key concepts covered in the course. Is your gingerbread home run on solar, or wind energy? Do you have a composting bin, a green roof, or rain garden?  How much did it cost to make your gingerbread home “green”?

The Hill students who attended were: Haroon Feda, 9th grader, from Fairfax Station, Va.; Quan Pham, 10th grader, from Vietnam; David Park, 11th grader, from San Francisco; Larry Lo, 11th grader, from Hong Kong and Natasha Maurer, 12th grader, from Redondo Beach, Ca.

There they worked with 32 Pottstown Middl School students in the classes of teachers Vanessa Barnaik and Ginger Angelo.

"It wasn't as chaotic as I thought it would be when working with so many  middle school kids," said Pham. 

"They were actually very cooperative, and the whole experience went very smoothly. It was really fun to see these kids getting creative with their houses and having a good time," said the Hill student. "I definitely look forward to more experiences like this in the future."

Although she could not attend, 12th grade student Grace Huang, of China, had the following to say about her prior experience when Hill students did this last Saturday, 12/10: "The green building seminar was both informative and fun.  I learned a lot about the sustainable features a building could have - such as rain gardens, roof vegetation, permeable floors, etc. - and applied them in my gingerbread house.  The workshop definitely made me more aware of a building's impact on the environment and more mindful of the options we have to make our buildings more sustainable and eco-friendly."