Schiess: Hamer students find pollination in life

Thirty Hamer Elementary School students traded their indoor classroom for a day enjoying activities in the outdoors as they learned the importance of plant pollination at the Camas National Wildlife Refuge. They were divided into three groups for activities in building seed balls, the relationship between predators and prey and the importance of pollination in making pizza.

“This activity was made possible from a grant from Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever,” Lara Fondow, one of the organizers of the activity, said. “With many of the pollinators like bees and the Monarch butterflies decreasing, it will show their importance to the students.”

The building of seed balls was accomplished as helpers made each student two balls of dirt and then the students rolled the balls in the seeds of 24 different flowers and plants. These were saved until after all the activities were done when the students scattered the seed-ladden balls across an acre near the headquarters. The plant seeds were mostly sagebrush, bitterbrush and wildflowers of different colors that will bloom at different times during the spring and summer. The seeds of the beautiful Scarlet Gilia was one of the most popular with the students.

In the pollinator free pizza activity, students were given pictures of different ingredients to create their favorite pizza. Then each ingredient is removed as they discovered those ingredients might not be available if there is no pollination. Food created by pollination means all fruits and vegetables could not be on pizzas. The students are taught that one-third of all our food are created by pollination and with the pollinators declining, the world’s food supply become scarce.

Children love to be physically active making the predatory/prey game an exciting activity for them. This game shows how important habitat is to the survival of pheasants and quail, but for the Hamer students the targeted bird was the sage grouse.

The prey-students wore flags that were plucked off by the predator-students as the prey worked their way from a safe “shelter” area to a safe “feeding” area. Hula hoops were placed along the route to serve as escape cover where the prey would be safe from the predators. The reward for navigating from the shelter to the feeding areas were pieces of candy.

All the participating students were given a t-shirt and a free membership in the Pheasants Forever organization.

“It is a great opportunity for the area students to be able to learn about habitat, food, cover and the importance of pollinators in their life,” Brian Wehausen, manager of the Camas NWR, said as the activities progressed. “It will also be a great help to get the area planted around the headquarters that has been started by the Friends of Camas organization.”

Last spring the Friends of Camas helped finance and build an area for native plants to be reintroduced to the refuge headquarters. By next summer the area should have these flowers and shrubs attracting the bees and butterflies as they pollinate flowers planted by 30 youngsters having a lot of fun by escaping the classroom on a beautiful fall day.

“It will be fun for them to come and see what they have helped start,” said Desiree Shively, a faculty member of the Hamer school.