Terry Parker High School Academy of Coastal and Environmental Sciences (ACES)

Students from the Terry Parker High School Academy of Coastal and Environmental Sciences (ACES) career academy class participated in a service-learning project at Tree Hill on Tuesday to help remove the invasive plant species known as the air potato. These plants produce a fast-growing vine that soon covers much of the naturally growing plants on the property. ACES is a career and professional academy that has environmental sciences as the theme, so students enrolled in the academy receive instruction and field experience to prepare them for a career or college program as an environmental scientist. The academy is in its second year of existence, and will have a total of 3 levels of instruction, from freshman to senior year students, beginning with the new school year.

_{Mark Mummaw, Executive Director at Tree Hill, provides instruction on the root system and leaves of an air potato to academy lead teacher Dwayne Rogers, and ACES students Carl Cohn and Rosemary Gonzalez.}

_{Erica Trent, the administrator in charge of the academy, and student Rosemary Gonzalez combine their efforts to permanently remove a large air potato vine from the landscape.}

_{L to R- ACES student Carl Cohn, Mark Mummaw (Tree Hill Executive Director), ACES Board Chair Joanne Kazmierski (Jaxport Manager Community Outreach and Community Advocacy), Dwayne Rogers (ACES Lead Teacher), ACES student Rosemary Gonzalez, Lex Waters (Parker Science Coach), Erica Trent (Administrator in charge of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) pose with the newly acquired academy T-shirts provided by Jaxport with the logo developed by Jacksonville University’s graphics arts department}.