An awesome initiative took place at Castle Elementary School in the U.S. where they decided to create a pollinator-friendly garden. With the help of the Indiana Native Plant Society, students from the Green Team and their teachers planted native species for pollinators in the school courtyard.
22 students between the age of 8-10 were part of the Green Team during the project. The idea was to remove the broken pond from the school courtyard and use the space for creating a more biodiverse natural area. They removed the non-native and invasive plant species from the ground and replaced them with native species only. A new fountain was installed in the pond’s place to create a clean water source for pollinators.
The teachers that coordinated the project were already very interested in pollinators. They had brought caterpillars into the classroom to let the students watch their lifecycle. Creating a pollinator garden was the next step to allow them to study these insects directly in the school. They wanted to educate students on the lifecycle of different plants and insects. By building an area with native plants, they wanted to them to understand the importance of a biodiverse, local environment and how to take care of it.
“The teachers and students did an awesome job! You can tell an immediate difference when you walk up to the school. Thank you so much for putting in a tremendous amount of time with The Green Team. The courtyard experiences for our students are truly going to change in the coming years.”
- Adam Schmitt, Principal at Castle Elementary School
The main challenge of the initiative was the amount of work and the limited human resources, considering the large area to transform. Thankfully, the students’ families helped with the planting, local businesses donated items (tools, snacks, plants), and the Indiana Native Plant Society provided dozens of native plants. Thanks to the Alcoa W5 grant, the school was able to buy the necessary tools and equipment as well as pollinators plants.
Students and teachers gained a lot from this experience. They learnt how to support plants and pollinators in the garden and how to build a natural area for these species to live. They went from only a handful of milkweed plants to about 15 different types of native plants in their courtyard and they hope to add even more in the coming months.
The Alcoa W5 project activities at Castle North Middle School support the following SDGs:
