Vision

Our project was to revamp the pollinator garden box at our school. Pre-covid, our school hd a beautiful pollinator garden, but unfortunately it wasn’t maintained through the lockdowns. The kindergarten classes hatched butterflies this year, and the grade 6 class thought it would be a great project to redo the pollinator garden to help the butterflies. As a class, the grade 6’s have had a huge focus on environmental sustainability and stewardship this year. We made and presented presentations about the UN Climate Action Goals for social studies, created automatic watering systems in coding/science, and are currently learning about biodiversity in science. These links, and others, helped to inspire these students to do something important for the surrounding ecosystems and protect local pollinating species from becoming endangered or extinct.

Action

The grade 6’s researched pollinating plants that are both native to Sudbury, and have the growing conditions necessary for out garden box location. We decided we needed plants that require full sun and little water, so they can survive through the hot summers. Once we figured out the plants we wanted, we had to figure out how much we could buy with our budget of $500. We ordered the plants and some soil through a local greenhouse.

Reflection & Celebration

Our pollinator garden helps teach our students about sustainability and positively impacting climate change. We need pollinating insects and animals to grow many of the plants the world depends on. We need these plants to keep animals and humans alive. Most importantly, this project taught our students the importance of caring about our environment, and allowed them to become sustainability stewards for their community. They took on a huge leadership role with regards to this project, and were so passionate about create a beautiful green space for humans and animals to enjoy. The entire school community has been outside to see out new pollinator garden, and it is visited often by parents and community members that walk on or near the school grounds. Since our projects completion, we have noticed many students and parents sitting around the now beautiful garden.