Environmental Science Class Creates Terrariums

Teacher Anna Jao’s science classroom came to life at Huntington High School as Environmental Science course students recently designed and created their own terrariums.

“They are closed terrariums that will be self-sustaining,” Ms. Jao said. “The students will never open them again!”

The teenagers used old soda bottles along with layered pebbles, soil and moss and then put their plant inside. “They watered their plant and sealed the bottle shut,” Ms. Jao said. “These terrariums model multiple science concepts, including water cycle, nutrient recycling and gas exchange.

Ms. Jao has been teaching in Huntington UFSD since 2023. She graduated from Bay Shore High School, where she was an Environmental Club member, before earning undergraduate and graduate degrees at Stony Brook University. She’s been the high school’s Environmental Club faculty advisor for the last two years.

Environmental Science is a full-year, one credit course that meets daily. It is available to students in grades 10-12. The course prerequisite is successful completion of biology and Earth and space science.

“This course stresses basic principles of environmental science, with a strong focus on inquiry based, collaborative problem solving,” according to the course description. “Topics of study include ecosystems, energy, land, soil and water, pollution, population, biotechnology, waste and environmental ethics. There is a strong laboratory component to the class.”