The LSU project-based Coastal Roots program celebrates its Quinceañera with the launch of another Chilean branch of its program in the city of Concepcion. In its 15 years in existence, it has served 52 U.S. schools and three Chilean schools, affecting more than 6,700 students.
The new branch will join the existing three — two in Santiago, Chile, and one in the urbane, communal San Pedro de la Paz Concepcion, Chile.
Coastal Roots Program Co-Principal Investigator Ed Bush said the program has expanded vastly since its birth in 2000, crossing national borders to promote environmental stewardship.
“Everyone has some sort of environmental problem,” Bush said. “To mitigate those problems, you’re going to have to do it in a dynamic way.”
Bush and Program Coordinator Pam Blanchard said they strive for further excellence each year.
According to the Coastal Roots website, the program began as an educational outreach project for the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program. It originated as a seedling nursery program with six school locations near the state’s coastline.
In 2006, it transitioned into the LSU Department of Educational Theory, Policy and Practice in partnership with the LSU AgCenter and the LSU School for Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences. The number of associated schools tripled and so did demand for the program.
More than 100,000 trees and grass plants later, Coastal Roots integrated itself into the science curriculums at different schools and is available to anyone who is “interested and committed,” Bush said.
Bush said he and Blanchard give participating schools program manuals to guide them in their project-based learning. All participating educators meet twice a year — once in the winter and once for a summer workshop — to share new ideas and discoveries.
Bush said the meetings, which typically feature guest experts, build a network of top-notch educators.
“We can take the best of the best and make it better,” Bush said.
A typical Coastal Roots-infused day includes students propagating their own plants, planting them on the coastline and measuring them regularly, Bush said.
He said two students have done their master’s degree research on the program because of the way it integrates other facets of education. For example, Bush said English teachers get students to write papers on coastal erosion and music teachers compose songs for students to sing based on the fieldwork.
“It’s pretty much limitless,” Bush said.
Mary Legoria, science specialist at Westdale Heights Academic Magnet, coordinates Coastal Roots a her school. Her students reforest native trees at the Blackwater Conservation Area off Hooper Road, track butterfly migration patterns and monitor bird feeders on a weekly basis.
Westdale Heights adopted the program to their curriculum in 2008 as a chance for students to engage in hands-on activities with the wetlands, which encompass their classroom lessons.
“We have a strong focus on environmental science here, and [Coastal Roots] was just a natural fit,” Legoria said.
She said Coastal Roots inspired her elementary-age students to take up more environmental conservation efforts, such as placing compost bins around campus to encourage recycling.
Legoria said the program cures the “nature deficiency” she sees in today’s children by allowing them to tame a semi-wild outdoor area.
“They are becoming more environmentally conscious,” she said. “They’re more aware.”

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Olivia Ramirez