CACTUS, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — To say Cactus Elementary science and enrichment teacher Lori Garrett loves to teach might be a little bit of an understatement.

The numbers back her up, for the last five years Garrett has applied for and received close to $16,000 in grants to improve Cactus Elementary’s Ag program.

“I realized there are so many grants through Texas Farm Bureau, local, statewide and there’s national AG in the classroom as well,” said Garrett.

Which has gone to building up various activities.

“This year’s grant was a focus on what we’re growing in our garden area. We’ve got some raised gardens. We’ve got a greenhouse. We’ve got the mini aquaponics system but the mini aquaponics will be used to grow herbs and this is going to be distributed in a Snack Pak program locally,” said Garrett.

Garrett said it helps students who come from foreign countries, communicate better.

“If you give them a fun thing to do like go play for a while, it gives them the incentive to start talking more in English to the teacher, and we can also use that time to do some academic vocabulary building as well,” said Garrett.

It also provides students with an unconventional but effective way to learn and grow.

“That’s another reason why I love having the garden access as well because we can take that outside and be more hands-on and get dirty and just have fun,” said Garrett.

Garrett said she is not done just yet, as she plans to apply for more local, state, and national grants in the future.

More from MyHighPlains.com: