Students will document local late-summer pollinators and conduct a plant count in our newly established garden. We will break into teams to do a plant count of our garden and explore what we may want to add next spring. Depending on the success of this project, we may expand it to other areas of our school landscape and gardens.
Microclimate Mapping:
Students will use infrared thermometers to measure and map temperature differences across our school's landscape, helping them understand the urban heat island effect. We will be measuring temperatures at several data points, including the sidewalk, grass, and front entrance of the school, the parking lot, the main playground, the field behind the school, and our new blacktop area. This will be a long-term project, and we will be presenting our data at the Spring Fling in 2027. We intend for this project to continue for several years.
Art and Traditions:
Along with our projects for the year, we will incorporate art into our environmental club projects. We will be making stepping stones for the Hutchinson Prairie Path. We will also be painting concrete pavers to display the name of our garden. And we traditionally set aside time during a meeting to create club tie-dye shirts. This year, we will invite club members to the tie-dye event. This will not be published school-wide. Creating art and making our club shirts is only for active members of the club, in the past we have had students just show up for these events and not participate in the club otherwise.