Vision

Our vision was to create two gardens, a herb and a wildflower garden to support our local pollinator population and ecology. The pollinators would be counted using Micro:bits and the data compared between the gardens to see which garden attracted more pollinators. This data would then inform our future work on the gardens especially on which herbs or plants to add. The herb garden was also used in meal prep by our hospitality students, so they really experienced the true meaning of ‘farm to table.’

Action

We created two gardens. The herb garden focused on herbs such as chives which are very appealing to bees. We planted other herbs such as rosemary, sage, lavender, etc to make the garden colourful and fragrant for our local pollinators. The students built the raised garden bed and planted the herbs. They maintained the garden by watering it, taking it outside on a daily basis and monitoring the Micro:bits and recording how many pollinators visited the garden. Once the herbs were ready for harvest, the hospitality students used the herbs in the meal preparation for our grade 7 and 8 student who receive a hot lunch twice a week at our school. Herbs such as basil for instance were used in our tomato sauce for the pizza. The wildflower garden was planted at the front of the school. This garden was planted by students part of the Environmental Club. This garden featured annuals and perennials that were specifically selected to be bee and pollinator friendly. Once again, students planted the flowers, watered them and monitored the Micro:bit data collection.

Reflection & Celebration

Engaging in the Action Project was valuable to our students and school community. Our students learned about sustainability and the impact of climate change on pollinators. They also learned that small, local actions can help reverse the negative impacts of climate change especially on our pollinator species. This project brought the whole school community closer for a common goal as we received an overwhelming amount of donations of soil, mulch, herbs and flowers to support our work. It was an unexpected positive outcome of engaging in this action project.

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