Even though it’s an online school, BCS Virtual Academy (BCSVA) students have plenty of in-person learning and community service opportunities.
Beside the school’s headquarters at Haw Creek Elementary School, BCSVA Ecology Club members installed a native plant pollinator garden to beautify the campus and support pollinating insects like bees and butterflies. Students worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to design and install the garden. Together, they will study, care for, and record observations of the pollinator garden and the pollinators that visit during the next three school years.
“It’s really nice for us to be able to get out and talk to each other in person while doing something good for the school and the pollinators,” said Neva, a BCSVA junior. “I think it can help us learn more leadership skills too.”
BCSVA high school science teacher Nick Peragine said the Ecology Club also plans to include a little free library, a little free seed library, and a positivity rock garden as part of the overall pollinator garden project.
“We are sharing what we create with Haw Creek Elementary so that they can bring their students out to the pollinator garden and learn all about the importance of pollinators to our ecosystems in North Carolina,” he said. “And, in the future, we hope to have so many plants repopulating our garden that we are able to pass some local wildflowers to neighboring schools so that they can build pollinator gardens on their campuses as well. In addition, we are going to work with Asheville GreenWorks to have our pollinator garden designated as an official Monarch Waystation.”