As a continuation from last year’s Alcoa W5 project, the new Green Team at John H Castle Elementary School (Indiana, United States) expanded their courtyard garden and planted many more native plant species on their school grounds to enhance local biodiversity.

At the beginning of the school year, a Green Team was established with 4th grade students. Their role this year would be to carry on with the expansion of the school’s courtyard garden and enhance biodiversity on the school grounds.

Throughout the year, the project taught students about gardening, helping them gain new skills. The students also gained knowledge on the life cycle of plants and insects, as they watched plants grow, and insects thrive in their garden. They also learned about the nuisance that invasive species can cause to the environment, and why native plants are important for local ecosystems and biodiversity.

At the end of the year, an action day was held during which the courtyard garden was expanded, and the students got to apply the gardening skills they had acquired during the year. In total, more than 20 students and their families helped on the action day to tear out the invasive species, expand the garden size by 50 square feet (4.65 m2) and plant 10 new native plant species in the school courtyard!

“This year was amazing. We actually got to plant and see such a huge transformation to the garden. There are so many beautiful plants coming back from last year and we just planted so many more today.”- Student at John H Castle Elementary School

The hard work and dedication of the students – who worked in all types of weather – allowed them to create a courtyard full of biodiversity, in which they can now watch, experience and learn about the life cycle of native plants and insects. This project has also helped implement outdoor education at John H Castle Elementary School, as the tranquil garden will now often be used as a classroom for hands-on learning. But even more importantly, this project ensured the protection and enhancement of local biodiversity, by restoring native plant species that are beneficial to local insects in the courtyard.

The Alcoa W5 project of John H Castle Elementary School supports the following SDGs: