Hosted by OSOS , contributed by Caitríona on 9 July 2019
The Junior Pollinator project is an environmental education STEM project. Students( aged 10-12 years) develop scientific skills to solve real-world environmental issues in their community and in a global context. The research project relates to the identification and protection of pollinators ,the maintenance of ecosystems, biodiversity and sustainability.
Placed: Students engage with the scientific method in this inquiry based activity in the school, the school garden, the school wildlife habitat the local and wider school community.
Purposeful :Students recognise that pollinators contribute directly to food security and are key to conserving biodiversity. Actions for pollinators can have a positive global impact.
Passion-led: Students are encouraged to take ownership of the project. They develop leadership and communication skills by engaging with the school community and Dunboyne Tidy Towns in a common goal to save pollinators locally and globally.
Pervasive: By working with their families and community, sharing their work, students bring science and scientific education to the community.
Feel
This year we created a biodiversity habitat map of the school grounds. We made a very special effort to make our school garden, including the school wildlife habitat bird- friendly by installing a number of additional nesting boxes for birds to build their nests, protected from the harsh weather and predators. Birds need food, shelter, water and nesting sites. Birds, like bees act as pollinators as they move from plant to plant. Many birds love to sip nectar from flowers and help to pollinate. This is vital for food and seed production. Birds help us in many ways in the garden by playing a vital role in the garden’s ecosystem. They eat insects and help to eliminate unwanted pests so we don’t have to use pesticides. Birds also love weeds! Watching birds and interacting with them, listening to their songs and taking the time to work outdoors to improve their habitat promotes our wellbeing.We designed and created bee hotels, which we placed in the school wildlife habitat.We planted pollinator friendly flowering bulbs and shrubs in the school garden.We participated in a project called Dunboyne 2020 .This involved the distribution of 2020 pollinator friendly bulbs each year until 2020 in our community.We grew sunflowers from seeds to contribute to Tidy Towns 1000 Sunflowers for Dunboyne initiative in our community. We grew butterflies from larvae. We recorded the miracle of metamorphosis using the imovies app.We released the butterflies into the school garden.
Imagine
In 2015, bee experts in Ireland came together to produce the All – Ireland Pollinator Plan 2015-2020. They decided to do this because we know that our bees are in big trouble and could disappear from Ireland if we do not do something to help. Without bees, we won’t be able to grow our own fruit and vegetables and our wild flowers will begin to disappear, making Ireland a very dull place. We want to hear the buzz of hard working bees carrying out their important pollination work. We need to tell everyone how important bees are. We want to make our school and garden a safe place for bees to live. Bees are also really important to make sure we keep on growing healthy and eating delicious food. We are working to make sure our school becomes bee friendly by planting lots of different flowers in pots and flowerbeds in the school to make sure that flowers are in bloom every month from spring through to autumn. We also have a pollinator friendly area on the school grounds. Pupils in our school participated in a competition organised by Dunboyne Tidy Towns Committee and sponsored by Dunboyne and District Credit Union. The competition involved pupils carrying out a pollinator friendly action at home and recording the action through writing, photography or art. This year is our second year participating in the competition. Our aim is to work collaboratively with our Tidy Towns Committee into the future to communicate our joint initiative to parents, grandparents, friends, neighbours and the wider school community.The chairperson of Dunboyne Tidy Towns Committee came to visit all of the classes in our school to speak about the Dunboyne Tidy Towns Biodiversity project. This is a wonderful community initiative and an excellent opportunity for all of our school community to work in partnership with the Tidy Towns Committee.
Create
We invited a scientist from the Biodiversity in Schools organisation to deliver a workshop on bees and biodiversity to the students. We drew habitat maps of the school grounds to identify opportunities for actions to help pollinators. We planted pollinator friendly bulbs and wild flowers in the school garden, in the village and in our gardens at home. We had a wonderful response to the Tidy Towns Pollinator competition and the judges had a very difficult task selecting overall winners. A large number of entries were on display in Dunboyne Library where pupils attended the launch of the Tidy Towns Biodiversity project on Wednesday 23rd of May during Biodiversity Week. There were representatives from organisations across the community in attendance at the launch. This event was publicised on Meath County Library Facebook and Twitter, Dunboyne Credit Union Facebook, Dunboyne Tidy Towns Facebook, Dunboyne Community Centre, our school newsletter and our school website. We very much appreciate the involvement of the staff in Dunboyne Library in this initiative as they provide an excellent service to the school and to the community of Dunboyne. This was a wonderful occasion for the local and wider school community! This year we displayed our Pollinator project in Dunboyne Library during National Biodiversity Week to launch this year’s Dunboyne Tidy Towns schools' Pollinator competition .We displayed our project in our community at the opening of a new shopping centre in the village. We participated in a national science exhibition. We were delighted to welcome our International OSOS partners to our school to present our project. We visited Dublin City University to share our project with other OSOS schools.