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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — At the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, this event was a community workshop for the construction of a Green Roof. Approximately 50 people (public) attended. Students from Byington-Solway built the shed and Karns High School AP Environmental Science class students built the green roof,
The purpose of the workshop:
- Have the students showcase their research and work.
- To educate the public on LID concepts, especially green roofs.
- To highlight service-learning collaborations between local high schools and our undergraduate programs.
These efforts were, in part, from student investigations and research for installing a green roof at Karns High School. The Institute for a Secure and a Sustainable Environment was instrumental in getting this done.
The students presented technical data on green roofs including benefits, construction and plant materials. Their main focus was managing stormwater runoff and the bigger issue of Low Impact Development, an alternative approach to land development that seeks to maintain the natural hydrologic character of a site rather than traditional piping of stormwater directly to a water body. This is the main focus of the Water Quality Forum’s Adopt-A-Watershed program. CAC AmeriCorps worked directly with the high school students.
The bigger picture is how this shed/green roof fits into the Low Impact Development Demonstration Area designed by Curtis Stewart for the University of Tennessee Agriculture Campus. The LIDDA is intended to be a hands-on research/demonstration/information area for the public, specifically homeowners and university students. It will become part of the Tennessee Yards and Neighborhood program, where homeowners can come and see LID concepts and techniques in action and pick up information guiding them to other extension and web site information. Plant Sciences design and construction students will be using and improving the LIDDA thru their classes and projects. They will see the immediate impacts of landscape design in the landscape on a scale that is manageable and understandable while also directly contributing to the knowledge base of the community of homeowners.
The greenroof research will include water quality, stormwater retention, plant survivability for East Tennessee greenroofs. The intent there is to create a link between Plant Sciences researchers and high school science classes so we can begin teaching high schoolers how to do scientific research - A great recruiting tool for our programs.
Included in the LIDDA will be rain gardens, rain barrels/stormwater harvesting, bioswales, native plants, composting, worm farming, organic gardening, as well as some areas for the biofuels/switchgrass folks and possibly Forest Products.
Curtis Stewart estimates the retail value of this shed/greenroof at approx $3,000.
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horticulture
