From left, Alex Hurt, 15, a volunteer, and Elliot Herrod, 13, an eighth-grader at Liberty Memorial Central Middle School, work on weeding the school's garden, which is full of produce because of the good growing conditions this summer.

Growing tomatoes, painting murals or running miles on end.

When it comes to the Lawrence school district’s many clubs, it matters less what students are doing and more that they’re doing it as a group.

Club sponsors say that whatever the activity, club participation helps students learn teamwork while doing something they enjoy.

Here are five active clubs, from elementary to high school, gardening to art.

Free State High School Art Club

Need a work of art to beautify something at Free State High School? There’s a club for that.

The Free State High School Art Club meets weekly or every other week in the evening, and averages about 20 students, Free State art teacher and club sponsor Rachel Downs-Blair said.

In its two years of existence, the club has created chalk murals in the school and teamed with other clubs on a variety of projects, Downs-Blair said. This year, one possible project will be creating temporary displays in the commons area while it’s under construction.

Besides projects in the school, Art Club aims to get together for field trips to local and regional art facilities and events, plus give participants a chance to delve into their craft.

“We become more like family than anything else,” Downs-Blair said. “Art can be pretty personal, it can be pretty intimate … we’re expressing something.”

Liberty Memorial Central Middle School Garden Club

More than one Liberty Memorial Central Middle School student has showed up to garden club having never gardened before, parent involvement facilitator and club coordinator Laura Leonard said.

This makes for a whole new outlook on things like carrots, or radishes.

“The look on their face when you tell them they can literally pull it out of the ground and eat it is amazing,” Leonard said.

Students — who meet twice weekly after school in spring and fall, plus throughout the summer — are in charge at the 4,200-square-foot garden. Leonard said they decide what to plant, pull weeds, conduct soil tests, compost, harvest and eat the produce they grow.

Leonard said about 15 students participate consistently. They talk a lot and get to know each other well. They’re also learning — weather, science, math — but it doesn’t seem like it.

“We play in the dirt,” she said.

Sunflower Elementary School Marathon Club

This club has elementary students running back-to-back marathons — 1 mile at a time, or maybe 2 or 3.

Students meet before school on Mondays and after school on Wednesdays, check in and start running. When they check out, volunteers record their mileage for the day. Eventually, that’ll add up to 26.2 miles and “finishers” get prizes as rewards, said Annie Crawford, parent of three runners and the club’s communications coordinator.

Some will do this slowly, walking and talking away their marathons. Competitive types will finish quickly, logging as many as 3 miles per session.

“I think it helps them focus,” Crawford said. “They just don’t have a whole lot of free time during the day, and for them to get that social and that energy out before and after school is nice.”

Crawford said she still gets teary watching the “finishing line,” when students line up and cheer as one of their peers finishes that final mile in their personal marathon.

Cordley Elementary School Chess Club

One of the proudest moments for Cordley’s Chess Club came when the fifth-grade team won the state championship in spring of 2013, sponsor Phil Wedge said.

Of maybe 50 kids that start out the year participating in the once-a-week after-school club, about 15 take it to the “next level” by participating in tournaments, Wedge said. Of those, maybe only five or so continue the hobby seriously through high school.

But even the students who play just a while take something with them, Wedge said.

“They learn that chess can be fun, that it’s fun to sit at a table and play a game that might last an hour,” he said. And just like youth sports, they learn to manage emotions and learn from their mistakes, all while learning a game they can play the rest of their lives.

Kennedy Elementary School Girl Scout Club

With all the newfangled clubs out there, sometimes its good to remember that the longstanding and traditional ones are still relevant, Kennedy principal Cris Anderson said.

Scouting is nothing new, but activities within their group have evolved with the times and are a big draw at Kennedy, Anderson said. The school’s Girl Scout Club last year had more girls than any other in Lawrence, with about 60.

“One of the biggest benefits that young students experience in being part of a club is team building, relationships and how to work on projects together,” Anderson said. “All those collaborative-type skills that you need to be successful … they’re starting to learn and practice and have opportunities to develop those skills.”