Students are trying to make the desert bloom in front of Desert Shadows Middle School (DSMS) by harvesting rainwater and planting trees, vegetables and herbs. On Sept. 22 they showed their project to representatives from the Good Neighbor Environmental Board from Washington, D.C.

Members of the Good Neighbor Environmental Board examine a brick of “papercrete” at DSMS.

The independent board advises the president and Congress on environmental infrastructure needs in the states bordering Mexico, according to its Web site. Members came to Santa Cruz County for a meeting Sept. 23 and 24 on air quality, water and border fence issues in the United States and Mexico.

But the day before, board members visited the DeConcini Port of Entry, the International Wastewater Treatment Plant in Rio Rico and the biodiesel project at the Rio Rico Fire District, and then ended the day at the DSMS garden.

Science teacher Mary Jo Allen said the sustainable living project at DSMS began in 2004 in conjunction with the Ambos Nogales Revegetation Partnership (ARAN in Spanish) and the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology (BARA) at the University of Arizona.

A grant paid for tools and students began building tower beds out of old pallets, Allen said. They grew vegetable and herb seedlings in a small space with limited water and composed kitchen scraps brought from home to enrich the soil.

“Over the years, we watched water coming down from the roof and coming out this hole,” Allen said.

Groundskeepers had covered the space in front of the school with black plastic to discourage weeds, she said. An intern from the UA said students could harvest that water and make a green area. Using river rock, sand and gravel, they dug into the hard ground to loosen the soil and create terraces.

Inside greenhouses that resemble covered wagons, the students are nurturing vegetables and herbs to transplant to the garden, Allen said. A produce warehouse donated the structures.

Two former DSMS students, Manuel Gastelum and Gilberto Quinonez, helped their classmates make “papercrete,” a project that continues, Allen said. Students mix cement with shredded newspapers, water and sand to create lightweight bricks and use them to build benches for the garden.

These projects are also integrated into the curriculum at Instituto Technologico de Nogales, Sonora and its high school, Allen said. She took her students on a field trip to Sonora where they visited a home built with the papercrete bricks. They also looked at composting toilets and a biodiesel project.

Some of her students say, “I never liked science before,” Allen said. This year, 185 of 196 of her students want to work outside.