Melany is a science teacher and club advisor at a public high school in Tucson, Arizona. She launched a student-centered STEM club focused on climate change, sustainability, and culturally grounded environmental action. From ancestral knowledge in the local community of Native American and Mexican heritage, the club became a dynamic learning environment that integrates scientific inquiry with cultural knowledge and community collaboration. 

The STEM club became a place where students designed climate-resilient gardens, integrated aquaponics systems, and participated in planning an agri-photovoltaic (Agri-PV) installation. They conducted ethnographic research on food traditions and wove cultural insights into garden design by selecting native seeds, bamboo structures inspired by Yaqui traditions, and canal-based irrigation modeled after visits to Mission Gardens. Collaborative visioning exercises encouraged students to sketch, prototype, and refine ideas together, building not only technical skills but also a shared sense of ownership and community legacy. 

The STEM club’s efforts extended beyond the school grounds where students prepared to share their work at the Learning Planet Festival and envisioned passing their projects onto future classes. Melany’s fostering of such learning space became an active environment for students to build confidence and apply their knowledge in collaboration with others now and into the future.