The 4th grade students at Christopher Academy cared for 8,000 oysters this school year by cleaning and measuring them on a monthly basis. In May 2025 they released the oysters.

6th grade students at Churchland Elementary School resolved to ‘save the pollinators’ by planting strawberries, raspberries, and herbs. They also created a water habitat to increase biodiversity in their schoolyard.

Students in the Granby High School I.B and Creativity, Activity and Services Program have designed, built and continue to maintain a school garden promoting creativity and service while fostering environmental stewardship and sustainable living practices. This spring they added over a dozen native plants as they learned about the importance of native plants for attracting pollinators and during their field trip to Paradise Creek Nature Park.

The Horizons Summer Program, Our Choices, Our World project turned students into young Earth heroes as they explored the Chesapeake Bay, Elizabeth River, climate change, and how their choices impact the planet. They painted rain barrels, planted native gardens, and turned trash into upcycled treasure- while building reading, writing, science, and math skills along the way. See more in Horizons Hampton Roads Summer 2024 Flipbook

4th and 5th grade students at Norfolk Academy added compost to four raised-bed vegetable beds, in addition to a pollinator garden and a two-foot wide raised bed garden. Students grow all the plants for these gardens from seed in a greenhouse including zinnia, celosia, cosmos, fennel, parsley, butterfly weed and a pollinator garden seed mix comprised of many species of nectar sources for pollinators. Students also potted 30 buttonbush seedlings in pots in a mix of compost, soil and perlite. They will grow these seedlings for a year and distribute them to students next spring.

Students at Park View Elementary school saw their courtyard raised garden beds were empty. They resolved to bring them back to life, beautifying the school and promoting native biodiversity. Students weeded the garden beds and cleaned up litter in the courtyard area. Then they worked together to plant various native plants in their school courtyard, increasing habitat for local pollinators.

Portsmouth Public Schools Oyster Project has been successfully providing students over the past three years with an opportunity to explore nature first hand through a Meaning Watershed Education Experience (MWEE) as they learn how oysters are a keystone species in maintaining the overall health of the Chesapeake Bay and Elizabeth River ecosystem. In Summer 2024, 10 Portsmouth high school students attended a 2-week summer camp based at Paradise Creek Nature Park. They took field trips to local environmental organizations, kayaked, and raised and released approximately 10,000 oysters at Hoffler Creek. This year they intend to release oysters in Paradise Creek.

St. Patrick students are reducing styrofoam and single use plastics from their dining hall. They are also using a new composter with scraps from their dining hall and a vermicomposting system and used bottle caps to create a mural of the planet Earth!

12 students from the Nature and Environmental After School Clubs participated in interest-driven, problem-based investigations of the aspects and challenges in the Elizabeth River including: indigenous people, osprey populations, raingardens, and the importance of trees. Participants registered an osprey nest on school grounds, investigated the people and history of the Elizabeth River, and planned and planted a rain garden. They shared their knowledge with the entire school (250 students) and several families and community members at their Earth Day/Community Garden Celebration Day.

The Midway Manor Plastic Bag Initiative is a project-based community service learning activity that initiated in the Spring of 2023. They aim to reduce carbon footprint by reducing the use of single use plastic bags. Youth researched and collected over 3,000 plastic bags within the last year and accumulated over 200 community service hours since 2003. Their overall goal is stop the use of single use plastic bags at our local grocery stores and reduce the amount of plastic bag pollution on our local watersheds.

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