Last school year, Amy Dean had her sixth-graders build a small Japanese rock garden outside the classroom.

The kids had a blast and learned about geometric scaling, Japanese design and plant lifecycles.

Now, the Fort Mill Middle School art teacher has big-budget plans to revamp and expand the project. She recently won a $2,000 award to help.

The financial services company ING invited teachers across the country to compete in its annual Unsung Heroes program. Teachers submit an idea, often a costly one, that they want to bring to life for students.

ING chooses 100 winners who each get $2,000 and a chance to win one of three top prizes -- $5,000, $10,000 or $25,000.

The goal is to reward innovation in education, ING says.

Dean, a teacher of 10 years, won this year for her proposal to have students design and build an elaborate Japanese garden.

She has yet to receive the check, but she has a spot picked out for the garden.

"Outside the sixth-grade hall there's a courtyard that's just plain and boring," she said.

Dean envisions a variety of plants there, including monarch bushes and a cherry blossom tree. Coy fish will inhabit a pond from which a stream will jut.

The project is intended for sixth-graders, but Dean expects to get a hand from teachers and students across campus.

Students will work together, drawing on peers and lessons from other classes.

Some will measure the courtyard and graph the garden's layout. Others will analyze wind direction and soil type. Some will write Haiku poems inspired by the garden.

The whole time, they'll be learning about Japanese culture and history.

"I always have a lot of Japanese art in my class," Dean said. "My students always love it."

The idea for the garden sprouted about two years ago. Dean wanted her kids to have a place to draw.

"I wanted them to be able to go somewhere there was a lot of plant life," she said. "I started thinking of how beautiful Japanese gardens are and how much I enjoy botanical gardens. That kind of triggered it."

Her idea took her to Japan last fall on a Fulbright scholarship. She toured gardens and learned how to plot her own.

"In America, we do a lot of flowers and color," she said. "Theirs looked more natural. I realized that they're trying to replicate their natural environment, but in a controlled way. That's what I liked about it. It felt natural."

She expects the entire project to take several years. Kids will work on it primarily in spring, fall and early summer.

Dean hopes that when it's done, students from across the district will visit on field trips.

"It could be a little retreat," she said. "That's my dream."