Our project is call Project Lemon Tree brought to us through the Bizgenics organization. This project is to bring awareness to health, carbon footprint, and environmental impact using STEM curriculum for students. This is a completely student led project. Students learn, build, and create their own lemon trellis.

Students have already learned about the many benefits of lemon trees, including health and environmental. We have discussed how the trees are the highest CO2 sequestering trees you can plant, and Oahu imports 98% of the lemons they sell! Lemon tree are also extremely easy to care for.

All of the sixth grade students at Kaimuki Middle School then learned how to create a trellis for the trees. In groups of five, students designed their own trellis for lemon trees and presented their design. After the design, students built their trellis out of various materials to see if it would withstand a stress test. This included wind, shaking, and weight. The students discussed what worked and what did not work.

Now, we would like to students to bring their project to life! The students will vote on the best trellis, and KMS would like to build it on campus. The lemon trellis would be used by all students as an area that showcases student work, health, and environmental awareness. Each year the new six grade class will learn about the benefits of the trees. The seventh graders will learn about using the lemons by cooking or making products. And, the eight graders will be in charge of bringing community awareness to the project.