To passers-by, the entrance to Discovery Park off Pebble Way in the Rockrimmon neighborhood is just a nicely landscaped gateway to a playground, baseball diamond and soccer field.

But the newly sculpted walking paths, the bright flowers, the shrubs, trees and mulch represent much more than a neighborhood amenity.

To Barbara Barton, principal at Rockrimmon Elementary School, it was a great opportunity for her students to learn important lessons.

“One of our goals is to make learning relevant,” Barton said. “We’ve connected with this project on all kinds of levels.”

For kids in the school’s garden club, it was a chance to apply what they’ve learned in their own community garden next to the park.

“Every grade level has a raised bed where they plant in the community garden,” Barton said. “All our kids are involved in the garden.”

For kids in the art club, it was a chance to create ceramic stones to line the paths of the gateway garden. It wasn’t as much fun as you might expect.

“The glaze wasn’t working with the clay so we had to start over,” Barton said. “The new glaze is beautiful.”

But the artistic stones won’t be ready for placement in the gateway until next fall.

Then there is a group of five fifth-grade students who learned very different lessons from the project.

They are being mentored by Barton as part of the school’s participation in the International Baccalaureate program, which encourages students to develop independence and to take responsibility for their learning as they gain understanding of the world and learn how to function comfortably within it.

The five found themselves immersed in the real world as they joined the Discovery Homeowners Association in planning meetings with landscape architects and officials from the Colorado Springs Parks Department and Colorado Springs Utilities.

“They sat in on the planning and were given diagrams and had a voice in the process,” Barton said.

The five followed the project from conceptual design to construction and then shared what they learned with the rest of the students at Rockrimmon.

“These five students chose to be environmentalists,” Barton said. “During our IB exhibition in April, they taught everyone about xeriscaping and drought-resistant plants and deer-resistant plants and water conservation.”

That’s a lot of learning from a gateway garden to a neighborhood park.

A lot of credit goes to the Discovery HOA, which wanted to turn an eyesore into a neighborhood amenity, and to the neighbors and businesses who donated thousands of dollars worth of design skills and materials for the garden, and to the city folks who contributed as well.

Jack Lundberg, president of the Discovery HOA, is so proud of the way the community has come together that he has invited Mayor Steve Bach and others to attend a dedication ceremony at 11:30 a.m. May 30.

He should be proud. Coordinating these kinds of projects is like herding cats.

Making it a collaborative effort spreads the pride to everyone involved. That’s especially true of the kids who will remember their involvement in transforming a patch of dead grass and overgrown bushes into a beautiful new entrance.

Barton said these kinds of projects have a lasting impact on children and play a key role in the school’s overall mission.

“We talk to our students all the time about taking meaningful action,” Barton said.

“It’s a huge emphasis at our school. That includes taking meaningful action at home. Taking meaningful action at school. And ultimately taking meaningful action in your community and in the world.”

So congrats to Discovery HOA; the neighbors who donated their expertise, time and energy; the businesses that gave to the project; and the city officials who contributed.

You didn’t just help build a gateway garden. You helped teach these students valuable lessons about what it means to be a contributing member of the community. That lesson will be reinforced each time they walk to school and pass the gateway garden and see their efforts blossom and grow.

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