TY students pitch their project at the YEA ECO-Dens

Representatives from the Climate Ambassadors / Sensory Garden group presented our project to the judges at the ECO-UNESCO Young Environmentalists Awards during March.

Our project involved taking actions for biodiversity and climate change in our school and local community. These actions include improving biodiversity by planting bee friendly plants in our school and amenity park, establishing insect/bug hotels in our locality and more. We created awareness of how our actions to improve biodiversity can improve our environment and have a positive effect on Climate Change.  We wanted to create and maintain habitats in our community which supported and increased numbers of pollinating insects such as butterflies, bees, moths, and birds. We continued to maintain the Sensory Garden in Dún na Sí Amenity Park; growing native plants which offer food for pollinators and add colour and life in our locality. We are in the process of building a bug motel and refurbishing a currently wasted area of the school, making it attractive so it will grab people’s attention and hopefully inspiring them to think about biodiversity.

Our focus in the Sensory Garden was on developing a Meandering Sensory Path. We are working on this in co-operation with students and their teacher, Ms Gaffey, from the Uisneach Center. This path is composed of a number of segments, wooden patterns like stepping-stones and colourful stones to look like a river. The path is designed to focus attention on a physical activity and away from the mind which may be overloaded with thoughts.

MCS made a grateful contribution to Dún Na Sí Amenity Park from a recent non-uniform day. This fund is being used to finance the Meandering Path in the Sensory Garden.

Our main goal was to improve biodiversity in the locality and educate people on biodiversity. We also wanted to educate people on sustainability and offer solutions like buffer strips which offer food for pollinators but also help reduce pollution caused by spreading slurry. We also wanted to involve diverse groups in the community in our biodiversity, sustainability project, eg fellow students and teachers, farmers, individuals with special needs, etc. We also wanted to offer something to the community of Moate through maintaining a planted area in our local amenity park.

The final showcase and awards ceremony of YEA takes place in May, hopefully we will bring a title home with us.