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Hickerson Elementary pre-kindergarten teacher Michelle Mullican spoke with members of the Manchester Rotary Club about the schools STEM status and garden projects during its regular meeting February 28 at The Mercantile.

Mullican said Hickerson Elementary is currently the only state designated STEM school (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) in Coffee County.

“In 2019 at Hickerson we decided that we wanted to become a STEM School, and we were designated honor,” she said. “As far as I know we are the only school in the county that has this designation.”

Mullican said soon after this designation, the school was awarded a grant to build a greenhouse.

“Construction was delayed due to the pandemic, but as soon as we were able to, a group of community partners, teachers and staff members and their families completed construction.”

Mullican said the greenhouse has been a great experience for students at Hickerson, and they have been directly involved in the project from the ground up.

“Mr. (Jimmy) Anderson was our principal at the time, he had a real passion for STEM education and he taught the fifth graders how to build the tables for the greenhouse,” she said. “So it has continuously from the beginning been teacher led but also very student involved in the process.”

“Once the tables were built the community rallied together to donate materials to start growing plants,” Mullican added.

Mullican said community support and involvement has been essential in the success of the greenhouse and garden at Hickerson Elementary.

“We had several plant sales throughout the year to raise money,” she said. “The kids grew the plants they made signs, they promoted it and it was successful.”

Mullican said the garden has been a great learning experience for the students, and one of her goals is for the Hickerson garden and greenhouse to be accessible to even more students in Coffee County.

“We want to become a field trip destination school,” she said.

Mullican said she has spoken with the UT Extension Office about creating a Farm City Day aimed at pre-kindergarten students. While Farm City Day was traditionally for kindergarten students, Mullican said there is an idea to have one with baby farm animals for even younger students.

“We thought that would be so cool and we can invite the rest of the pre-kindergarten classes in the county, not just our county schools but also Manchester City and Tullahoma City,” Mullican said.

Other goals for Hickerson include the hiring of a STEM coordinator as well as a farm-to-school coordinator

 “I know those are kind of some big goals, but if we don’t have big goals then we never really accomplish anything,” Mullican said.