Vision

Our vision for Canada is… #1 to ensure Canadians are educated about the importance of pollinators and have the understanding to grow plants. This project allowed us as students to begin to develop this understanding as we planted seeds and care for plants in the classroom to bring outdoors. Our school wood shop build a standing planter that we used to grow tomatoes, lettuce, radish, and various pollinator friendly flowers.
Our #2 vision for Canada is to ensure Canadians are educated about the value of composting. This projected allowed us to learn about composting and share this message with our school. Thanks to funding received from LSF we were able to purchase small compost bins for classrooms to collect compost materials and being a composting program at our school! The compost produced will be used in our planters to provide nutrients to the soil.

Action

Our project was developed by a school club called Royal Sustainability Committee. This group of students support by teachers worked together to execute the vision. Every week we meet at lunch hour to learn from people in the community about related topics, plant seeds, water plants or make posters.
Our project works to address environmental concerns because we value to importance of pollinators to ensure we are able to produce food to feed the world. The compost also allows nutrients to be recycled and keeps food waste out of the landfill. Our project addresses economic concerns because learning how to grow and take care of plants can allow those to grow more of their own food rather than purchase it. Members in our community often use food banks and introducing the skill of growing food could reduce the need for using food banks. Our project currently does not involve a community garden however that could be possible in the future.
Members of the Royal Sustainability Committee have become leaders in our school working to take care of plants located around the school and encouraging others to compost. Due to the location of the planters in various classrooms we have a lot of students asking about the purpose of the planters and has developed a natural curiosity. This has allowed a large portion of the school to be exposed to the project. The composting program that will be fully rolled out come September will program an opportunity for many students in the school to contribute to this project and our vision for Canada.

Reflection & Celebration

We developed this project to be ongoing for years to come. Beginning in fall we will begin planting and incorporating plants into the classroom curriculum. We faced challenges along the way and definitely learned a lot about growing plants along with soil science. Our first challenge was learning that we planted the seeds too late in the year, we are unsure how far along some plants will be come the end of the school year. Next year we will ensure the seeds are planted earlier. We also learned the science behind composting and components of soil science that is helpful to develop good quality soil to put into the planters. Next year we will have compost added to the soil which will contribute to plant growth. The Royal Sustainability Committee is a young group of students that are eager to continue working in the next few years to develop our vision for a more sustainable Canada in our school.