Students build drip irrigation kits in STREAM program

JACKSON, Tenn. — Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, but teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.

Jackson Christian School students took the saying to heart on Wednesday by putting together drip irrigation kits.

“We believe part of being a good leader is knowing how to be a good servant,” said Jackson Christian School computer science and robotics director Molly Plyler.

This is all part of the STREAM program, an acronym for the Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Arts, Math at Jackson Christian.

Each Wednesday, students work on different STEM skills while combining things they’ve learned from other subjects.

This quarter they’re focusing on engineering and design.

“So this was a great engineering project for the students, to be able to build something that is usable to others,” Plyler said.

Students also learned how to code and put together a website about the systems, before putting the kits together.

“Because, in the future, there’s not a lot of coders right now, and they pay good money, so in the future that’ll be an easy job for people,” said seventh grader Josie Mansfield.

Their goal? Put together 100 kits to help people have their own garden.

“Grow their own food and be healthier, and they can provide up to seven people in a family,” said Annakel McGlinchey, who is also in the seventh grade.

If they reach their goal, they could be helping up to 700 people.

Once the students were all done getting the parts together for these kits, they put them in a bag, included a nice little note and they’ll be shipped to Zambia.

Healing Hands International partnered with the school and will ship the kits to Zambia.