Project Description:
Students designed a bioswale to manage the flow of stormwater from the CA Frost parking lots. The water will now drain into the dry stream bed and then to the rain garden instead of the playground. They also added native plants to the meadow in order to reduce non-point source pollution into Brandywine Creek. Lastly, students added native pollinating plants to the school vegetable garden in order to increase biodiversity.

Fostering Lifelong Stewardship:
The students are proud of the work they completed, and have a greater appreciation for their community and the ecosystem that surrounds it.

Partners:
LGROW, Blandford Nature Center

Teachers:
5

Students:
145

Funder:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Showcase Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E12Gyasop8

Project Description: 

2^nd and 4^th graders at CA Frost Elementary read some stories that sparked a discussion on protecting wildlife and building more wildlife habitats for plants and animals. The second graders walked through the neighborhood to do an assessment on what components of a wildlife habitat were present. The 4^th graders, then, created a flier and survey to see what people in the neighborhood knew about wildlife habitats, native plants, and to see who would want to transform part of their lawn into a wildlife habitat. 

The students looked at the survey results and decided that two things needed to happen: they needed to educate the neighborhood on some environmental topics and to transform someone's lawn into a certified wildlife habitat.

Based on the survey, the students determined that the neighborhood needed to learn more about the benefits of native plants, so they made door hangers for the neighbors to educate them on native plant species and on how to create wildlife habitats. The 4^th graders created digital field guides of native plants for the neighbors to use.

One lucky house in the neighborhood was chosen to have their lawn turned into a certified wildlife habitat with the help of students at CA Frost and our community partners (Roots Wild Ecoscape Design and Grow Wise Learning). The students did research on native plants and had to use a budget to plan for the project. The wildlife habitat will be created on June 3, 2023.

Fostering Lifelong Stewardship:

We expect that students will be able to help spark interest in others for creating more environmentally friendly uses of their yard, as well as provide a valuable start to help this happen.  Students can provide information to others on what a native plant is and why it is important to use them both for the plants and animals that may be in that area. We also hope to spark enough interest that students will want to increase native plant habitats in their own yards and community.

Partners:

Roots-Wild, Grow Wise Learning LLC

Teachers:

Laura Kenworthy, Environmental Science, 2nd Grade; Amy Paul, Environmental Science, 2nd & 4th Grades

Students:

151

Funder:

Wege Foundation, Family Support, Roots-Wild, Grow Wise Learning LLC

Showcase Video: https://youtu.be/Z90Hky4f_i4