First of its kind Greenhouse Bus visits local schools Play Video
Posted: Apr 20, 2010 5:04 PM
Updated: Apr 21, 2010 2:13 PM
Just in time for Earth Week, Bozeman Elementary students are learning about plants in a brand new, first of its kind greenhouse school bus, the Bozone Ozone Bus.
For the college and high school students of the Bozeman Youth Initiative, kids climbing aboard this blue bus is a dream come true.
"(I) feel pretty relieved that we pulled it off, about a year ago to the day we bought a school bus," program coordinator Kevin Vilkin said.
Through a community-wide effort the bus was ripped apart and rebuilt. It's a strange way to start a greenhouse, but if you want a mobile one, and you want to reach out to elementary students, what better symbol?
"We thought there'd be something so powerful about a transformed school bus because it's so iconic," Bozeman Youth Initiative executive director Greg Owens said.
Fourth grader Molly Taylor and her classmates got a run-through of the B.O.B.'s curriculum. There are games in one station, planting lessons in another.
There was also a tour of what's growing in the bus, and they're not just any plants. Underneath the polycarbonate ceilings and sitting in planter's welded by high school students, the Bozone Ozone Bus is growing a pizza.
"We have tomato, basil, wheat," Owens said. "Thought that be a great idea for the little kids to kind of comprehend the whole thing, planting the seeds growing the food, and turning it into a pizza."
That's exactly what will happen this fall when the Bozone Ozone Bus rolls back to Irving School for harvest.
The bus will be visiting elementary schools throughout Bozeman all week.
