Marietta students' projects aimed at helping Haiti

Students are working on projects in their classrooms that ideally will produce designs, innovations and processes that can eventually be taken to Haiti as the nation continues recovering from the devastating earthquake of 2010.

Credit: Jennifer Brett

Credit: Jennifer Brett

Marietta High School Pre-Engineering Teacher Leon R. Grant III, honored with the  2015 DiscoverE Educator Award at a ceremony at the National Academy of Sciences Building in Washington last year, launched the initiative.

The school system will partner with an NGO operating in Haiti, the Organization for the Development of Plaine de l'Abre. Plans call for a  Reclamation Restoration Community Center there, including a large public meeting space, four vocational focused classrooms with workshop space, experimental gardens, picnic/playground area, a recycling center, a clinic, an office, and a groundskeeper's residence, he said.

We visited students at Marietta Middle School’s

Credit: Jennifer Brett

Credit: Jennifer Brett

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) program to see what they’ve been working on.

Their projects include a hydroponics lab, where vegetables can be grown using far less soil and water than is usually required and designing playground equipment that can generate electricity.

Credit: Jennifer Brett

Credit: Jennifer Brett

Students have been studying the history, economy and ongoing needs of Haiti in their social studies classes, working on honing their marketing and digital skills by creating videos and operating

and have raised money by organizing raffles of gift cards and other items donated by area merchants.

"Marietta cannot stress it enough that we are participating in a real project to help Haiti," the web site notes.

Donations to help fund the ongoing project can be made here.

Although school is nearly out for the summer, students were still eagerly engaged in all facets of the program when we visited the other day. Here's a peek inside this busy operation!