Students grab construction kits. Adult volunteers secure hammers.<\/p>\n
Materials and instruction sheets are scattered across cafeteria tables.<\/p>\n
The battle of the birds, butterflies, bees and bats begins.<\/p>\n
\u201cBats are good for the environment because they eat insects,\u201d said second-grader Haxton Mello who is assembling a bat house with help from his dad. \u201cBats mostly live in caves, but here they can live in these bat houses.\u201d<\/p>\n At a nearby table, second-grader\u00a0Mikaela Farley defends butterflies.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir wingspan is really big, and it can probably knock other bugs out of the air,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Farley\u2019s butterfly teammate David Morales adds, \u201cThey are good because they don\u2019t sting.\u201d<\/p>\n Fifth-grader Jack Klindienst supports his stinging bees as best for the environment.<\/p>\n \u201cBees carry pollen and spread pollen to make more flowers and that is good,\u201d he explains. \u201cFlowers are good.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBirds,\u201d reports fourth-grader Audrey Latta, \u201care good for the environment because they eat worms and keep the food chain in check.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThink of all the worms if we didn\u2019t have birds,\u201d Latta adds. \u201cThey would be everywhere!\u201d<\/p>\n Latta need not worry about an invasion of worms any time soon.<\/p>\n She and her fellow NLES ecology club members are constructing shelters for birds as well as homes for bees, bats and butterflies to be placed in the school\u2019s garden. The afternoon building session is one of the final steps in a project that club sponsor and NLES teacher Coffin thought of this summer.<\/p>\n Talking over the sound of three dozen hammers at work, Coffin explained she read a newspaper article about the Norfolk Botanical Garden and how to build a bee house. After seeing a different article about butterfly houses, Coffin began to brainstorm ideas for a hands-on environmental lesson that would also enhance the school\u2019s garden.<\/p>\n “I love bats, so I knew we also had to have bat houses,\u201d Coffin said. \u201cMost people are afraid of bats. I don’t think they know how they good they are for environment.”<\/p>\n She added birds to the plan and began researching options for build-it-yourself house kits. With funding from a Virginia Beach Education Foundation (VBEF) innovative learning grant underwritten by RRMM Architects, Coffin was able to purchase kits and other resources to support the new project.<\/p>\n \u201cMost students have a natural interest in animals, but seldom do they think about how those animals are interdependent in our environment,\u201d Coffin wrote in her grant application. \u201cThis program will allow students to build on their interests, apply their research skills as they find facts, work on communication skills to present those facts in a debate format, and gain understanding about how our school garden environment depends on animals for pollination and insect control.\u201d<\/p>\n The culminating bird-bat-butterfly-bee debate\u00a0is in two weeks, and ecology club members are ready.<\/p>\n Fourth-grader Jake Miller is buzzing with excitement about bees and his research.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir bodies are completely different from humans, and they have parts that I have never heard of before,\u201d Miller says.\u00a0Pointing to the student PowerPoint presentations rolling on the cafeteria screen, he adds, \u201cYou can check out my slide if you want to learn more about body of a bee.\u201d<\/p>\n Third-grader Kylie Marlow shows off her finished product and her new knowledge. \u201cButterflies can live up to 12-years,\u201d she says. \u201cI didn\u2019t know that before my project.\u201d<\/p>\n Isaac Loftus shares more information. \u201cButterflies have lots of different species and having lots of variety is good because they all eat different things,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Also highlighting the importance of her animal\u2019s eating habits, Caitlin Samella states, \u201cBirds eat bugs that would eat plants. That definitely helps.\u201d<\/p>\n Fellow bird group member Kennedy Monahan is too focused to talk. She has a birdhouse to finish.<\/p>\n Coffin takes photographs of the students and smiles at all the activity around her. \u201cNone of this would be possible without the grant,\u201d she observes. \u201cThe Virginia Beach Education Foundation is a wonderful organization to fund such projects. Without them, the money just isn\u2019t there for us to do things like this.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Mello](\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Bat.-Haxton-Mello.-IMG_4026.jpg\")
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