Las Positas College's newly constructed horticulture facility and the soon-to-be-completed viticulture building are some examples of how district officials said the college is teaching sustainability while also looking at the Tri-Valley's agricultural history.
"You need knowledgeable people in the workforce to understand how to recommend plants, (how) to run their own landscaping companies," said Nan Ho, dean of science, technology, engineering, and math at Las Positas. "This is a pathway for students to actually learn all this, get their certificate or get their degree, and then they can actually open their own landscape company."
The new agriculture science facility includes a classroom, greenhouse, shade structure, growing grounds, and an orchard area, along with new parking spaces.
Some of the most notable amenities that Ho pointed out are the growing grounds, the greenhouse, and the shade structure because they provide hands-on learning for students.
"The greenhouse is state-of-the-art," she said. "We have really large temperature fluctuations in Livermore, especially in the summer, so being able to control the temperature in a large greenhouse is really important."
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