Perpich Students Complete Rain Garden Project

May 16, 2025

This spring, Derek Debrauske’s Environment & Sustainability class completed a rain garden project on campus. The Rain Garden is designed to utilize unusable space, and help create a more wildlife friendly habitat. To create this design, the students studied the environmental gradients of the area. In the experiment, they used several methods to collect soil and sunlight data: taking temperature, observing sunlight patterns, and taking soil samples. They used these to illustrate the information into gradient maps.

Students map out the experiment area on Perpich’s campus

“We found that the northern section is the only area with full sun, while the largest sections are partial sun,” the students report on their class website. “In looking at our soil moisture information, we found that the area is quite dry with little range of moisture. Lastly, with temperature, we found there was a heavy range of temp throughout the garden.”

Students map out the experiment area on Perpich’s campus

The purpose of the project is to ultimately reduce the amount of Kentucky Bluegrass on campus by doing a self-led student experiment. In addition to all of the experimentation processes, the students also reported their data in graphs and illustrations and published a Google Classroom site to share their learnings for future years.

Kentucky bluegrass is a popular and widely used turfgrass in Minnesota, especially for lawns. It’s known for its cold-hardiness, lush appearance, and ability to form a dense, lasting lawn. However, it requires more maintenance than some other grass types, particularly during hot, dry periods, and it doesn’t thrive in shady areas.