In the Fall of 2018, physics teacher Mark Stoetzer and 2019 graduate Stella Anagnos formed Rock Plant Club. Anagnos knew Mr. Stoetzer had an interest in plants and she had the idea to start the club, and it’s still together now. RPC has done activities like spreading wildflower seeds in front of the school. 

“That first year we got some wildflower seeds and spread them around the outside of the 1500 building, as well as in the courtyard,” Stoetzer said. “And then the next year wildflowers popped up, so that’s kind of cool.”

The group typically goes on nature walks, maintains the 2500 garden, grows seedlings, prepares places to be planted, and plants native plants. During the 2019-2020 school year they cleaned up the planters in front of the school and planted native plants there. They’re still going strong today. 

“This year one of our projects is going to be to redo the Norman Jones Memorial Garden, between the 100 and 700 buildings,” Stoetzer said. “That definitely needs some care. A number of years ago I think the basketball team did that as a project, but it’s one of those things that needs to be maintained. So we’re going to redo that and use some native plants and hopefully have something that’s going to be low maintenance over time.”

In their Sept. 9 meeting RPC students learned how to use iNaturalist, a program that helps users identify plants and animals. They also upload photos of plants and critters spotted around campus to their website. Rock Plant Club meets on Thursdays from 4:25 to 5:15 in room 2505. 

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