Pollinator Power
Did you know that without pollinators and especially bees, many of the fruits and vegetables we enjoy would never grow!
2nd, 3rd and 4th graders at North Park Schools have been busy for the past month learning about the importance of pollinators! Wrapping up their 6th year co-leading the program, Deb Alpe with CSU Extension and Marti Aitken, Parks District Botanist with USDA Forest Service teach students about the variety of pollinators in the world, the butterfly life cycle, metamorphosis, and all about bees. Students especially enjoy growing their own tiny caterpillars into beautiful Painted Lady butterflies that they release in the school greenhouse shortly after they emerge from their chrysalis…which fortunately occurred last week during a few incredibly lovely warm days.
The project is funded by the sale of the ever popular Wildflower calendars that students create and sell during the fall each year so thanks to all of you out there who purchased and calendar and helped support this fun program!
**EDITORS NOTE**
Our community and school is both so blessed to have many partnerships such as this to tie it together. Both Deb and Marti, along with the
agencies they represent, are outstanding in their fields and are committed to enriching the education of our local students through classroom engagement projects. There are a number of agency partners in the Jackson County Outdoor Education Network (JCOEN) that have built a tradition of sharing their resources to engage classrooms. The Pollinator Project is one of many programs our local partners host. Recently we shared the Earth Day event. Coming soon is the Water Carnival. Keep your eyes open for these cutting edge "out of the box" learning opportunities our community offers to its youth. Another reason to be proud to be a North Parker.
