Forbes Public School is building a bed and breakfast ... for bugs.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$1/
(min cost $8)
Login or signup to continue reading
The school has joined the B and B Highway program to bring in our native pollinators.
They've spent two days learning about biodiversity, looking for teeny tiny creatures in the school and planting out flowering plants to encourage them to come in.
"Kids are loving it," said presenter Nicole Lewis.
"It's informative: there is an indoor component and that's followed up by an outdoor component, developing the skills around what they've learned information about."
The program starts with a focus on the importance of biodiversity and some insight into who our pollinators are.
Did you know flies, wasps, bats and possums are all pollinators as well as bees?
Students then learn about the relationship between plants and pollinators before heading out to plant out gardens to encourage our pollinators to come in.
"We plant all native, all flowering, ground covers and shrubs," Ms Lewis said.
"There are lots of grass and trees but that mid-storey is missing.
It's also important to plant the colours, shapes and sizes different pollinators like and to ensure you've got plants that flower at different times, so there's something flowering in winter and autumn as well as spring and summer.
Learning to observe and record what's around them is also an important skill and the program teaches kids to become citizen scientists.
Finally, the school also gets a bird box as the students learn about built habitat.
"We can also build habitat and we should because a lot of pollinating animals need hollows and they're disappearing, so we need to make up for that," Ms Lewis said.
Forbes Public students were keen to take the pots from the tubestock they'd planted out and creative homes for native blue banded bees, to give them safe places in our neighbourhoods.
"We say to the students, teach your friends, teach your families, put into practice what we're teaching you: plant the right things and then you're adding to the corridor," Ms Lewis said.
"That awe and care of nature is part of what we're about: we don't hurt plants, animals, we're living together, we need each other.
"Our vision of a highway is that it goes across Australia, we have 150 sites so far, most in NSW and we've now got some in Qld and Vic so the idea is to keep going."
