Hosted by OSOS , contributed by Caitríona on 9 July 2019
The Crocus Project is an interdisciplinary STEM project. All students (aged 10-13 years) in the school participated in these activitites.This project complements our Dunboyne Senior Primary School's Junior Pollinator project in association with Dunboyne Tidy Towns Committee. The Crocus Project is an Irish initiative whereby Holocaust Education Trust Ireland (HETI) provides yellow Crocus bulbs for young people and school students aged 11 years and older to plant in memory of the 1.5 million Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust and thousands of other children who were victims . The yellow flowers recall the yellow Stars of David that Jews had to wear . The Crocus flowers blooms around the end of January, about the time of International Holocaust Memorial Day. When people admire the flowers, the students explain what they represent and recall the children who perished in the Holocaust. Students participate in the Crocus Project and design and create a pollinator friendly area in the school garden to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. Students research how crocus flowers grow from bulbs. They research the science of flowering bulbs, how to plant,grow and care for them in the school garden and at home.
להרגיש
We worked in groups to carry out research into the background to the Holocaust.We decided to participate in the Crocus Project because we were learning about World War II in History and we were also working on the science of flowering bulbs for our Junior Pollinator STEM project.We wanted to share our learning with other students in the school and with our local and wider school community and create an outdoor learning space to act as a stimulus for other students to explore the topic.
לדמיין
We carried out research into the background of the Holocaust and its relevance in our world today .We learned about the plight of refugees during the Holocaust and today.We experienced how to embrace diversity and celebrate our similarities. We discussed how we could create an open learning space to share our project with others.We are working on a new project with Dunboyne Tidy Towns called Dunboyne 2020. The aim of the project is to plant 2020 pollinator friendly bulbs in Dunboyne each year until 2020. The Chairperson of Dunboyne Tidy Towns is working with the school to distribute pollinator friendly bulbs to all of the students in the school to plant in their gardens at home. Hyacinth, Crocus, Allium and snowdrop bulbs were distributed throughout the school. Bulbs were also planted in the school garden and in pollinator friendly areas in the school grounds. This process was replicated throughout the village of Dunboyne. We hope that all of our students will continue to plant pollinator friendly plants with their families and remember to help look after the bees as they learn and grow into adults! The Crocus Project Memorial garden will complement this project.
יצירה
We created projects and Powerpoint presentations on the Crocus Project in preparation for an open day to share our project with other students in the school. We invited Minister of State for European Affairs,Helen McEntee, representatives of Dunboyne Tidy Towns and members of the local and wider school community to the launch of the Crocus Project Memorial garden We researched the science of flowering bulbs.We participated in a local project with Tidy Towns called Dunboyne 2020.We assisted with the distribution and planting of 2020 pollinator friendly bulbs each year in the school grounds, in the village of Dunboyne and in their gardens up to and including the year 2020. We designed and prepared an area for the planting of the crocuses in the school garden.We designed a memorial plaque to remember the children and all those who perished in the Holocaust.We utilised our ICT skills to upload our pollinator friendly actions and locations to the publically available National Biodiversity Data Centre "Actions for Pollinators" online mapping system.