Josh Brower

Environmental Science
7 January 2016
Action Research Paper
Will humans eventually become extinct if pollinators seize to exist as well? Pollinators play a huge role in being
responsible for different natural food sources. Without pollinators, most plants cannot reproduce seeds and fruits. One of the main
pollinators, the honeybee, has perished by 30% in the last decade and nearly a third of all bee colonies in the U.S. have
disappeared (Death and Extinction of the Bees). According to Albert Einstein, humans would not last even 5 years if the
honeybees existence ended completely. This had me interested in the topic concerning pollinators. Not just honeybees, but other
pollinators that are more unrecognizable, such as the butterfly. Adult butterflies help pollinate flowers to help them reproduce, so
they are actually also very important to the environment and maintaining nature. While at my internship, I learned a great deal
about butterflies and other pollinators that are extremely beneficial. Since my internship also worked with outreach with schools,
this also helped spark some ideas in me on what ways schools can help contribute to conservation. Being at the butterfly farms
and learning about native pollinators helped me conduct my research because it helped me get a better understanding of how
crucial pollinators are when it comes to agricultural values and the persistence of mankind.
Elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and even colleges can all play a part in helping conserve the
environment by spreading awareness. A lot of students gain awareness by giving presentations on the topic to their school, family,
or community. This method helps enlighten the people about the issue being expressed. At the Butterfly Farms in Vista, CA, one
of their ways to raise awareness involves one of the Monarch Butterflies favorite dishes, Milkweed. Monarch butterflies lay their
eggs on milkweed, allowing them to repopulate. By trying to get the word out about butterflies, the Butterfly Farm Conservation
reaches out to different elementary schools about a Milkweed giveaway, which results in giving the different schools free
milkweed to educate their students about it, and put it into gardens to help repopulate the Monarch butterfly. Schools have the
capability of helping conservationists tremendously because they are the youth and can have a big impact on the world and the
future.
Some schools have conservation programs already implemented. For example, King Country Green Program. This
program provides these schools with tools they need to initiate and expand conservation practices, operate environmentally
efficient and responsible facilities, and involve the whole school in environmental stewardship. All of these programs teach
students to learn about different types of conservation and how to positively impact the environment. It teaches them waste
reduction and recycling, energy conservation, water conservation, pollution prevention, and about how to sustain a green school
district. This is just an example of how schools can contribute to conservation.

One way of helping out with conservation is the Pollinator Garden Program. This program is extremely simple, all it
takes is building a garden either in your backyard, or at school. This can be helpful because it will help pollinators existence
persist and educate the youth about the issues going on with pollinators and how their existence is lowering gradually with time. I
feel this project could be launched through a grant, a scholarship, or just an agreement between schools to get it started. I feel that
if schools collaborated with each other with this project then it could be very beneficial.
At my internship, I was located in an outdoor setting at a butterfly conservation site. I worked on a computer along a
row of tables, just near the butterfly enclosure that was surrounding by different types of plants. My job was to contact different
elementary schools throughout San Diego to see if they would like to participate in a field trip. My essential question is relatable
to the context because Im trying to see how schools can impact conservationists and their business. Throughout my time at the
butterfly farm, their main focus and support was having elementary schools coming in to learn about the Monarch butterfly. I
would like to see how elementary schools make such a difference and figure out if there are ways I can get more schools to
become interested in participating within the pollinator garden program to help benefit the environment. Tom and Pat both run
the conservation site and they are both crucial to it functioning correctly because they keep all the plants nourished along with the
butterflies.
To gather more information, I spoke with Sarah Wheeler. She first talked to me about her occupation, which is a
biology instructor at Miramar College. She first got her undergraduate degree in biology in 2004, but she just recently graduated
from graduate school in May of this year, where she studied ecology. She was in graduate school for a total of 6 years, but has
had science related jobs the whole time all the way since 2004. Before she started working at miramar college, she would teach
kids about marine science. She worked worked with an organization that was about helping students with their research about
marine ecology. Speaking to her about my topic was beneficial because conservation can be closely related to science and
biology. I told her about the pollinator garden program, which she was familiar with, and she feels that the program can be very
beneficial to the environment and the community. She started giving me examples of other well known conservation programs,
for instance, the kids eco club, which works with high school students. Another well known conservation program is called
Solana Center, where they run outreach activities there. Both of these are examples that conservation in school can be very
beneficial to the students and help them develop a better understanding of the environment and how conserving it is crucial.
By interviewing a biologist, I gathered the data I needed to further my research. My first question was based on Sarahs
occupation and how this can connect with what Im interested in. Following my second question which was gathering more
information about her work criteria and how long shes been working in the field of science. After learning a little more about
what she does, I changed gears and went into asking her if she thinks the pollinator garden program is important, how we can get
people to care about this issue, how we can motivate people, and how important it is for the youth to get involved with
conservation. I examined that she said that kids getting more involved in different ways to conserve the environment is a good

idea. She made it seem like it was a very important factor and that the youth could have a big impact if they apply themselves.
Since the youth is the next generation, they can overall have a huge impact on the future and what influences the future. Having
kids help out in the conservation field at a young age can help them keep an open mind, and show them they that can make a
difference.
Sarahs overall opinion of the pollinator garden program idea was that schools should all collaborate and participate
together to be educated about conservation. If kids see the issue first hand at a young age, and work together to help make a
difference, then this could be very impactful for them personally.
Analysis
My essential question was about how we can improve school participation in the Pollinator Garden Programs. The
pollinator garden program is basically having people create gardens to help maintain pollinators and help their existence persist.
This question I felt was important to address because by building more gardens we could help increase the butterfly population
which is very beneficial to the environment.
Butterflies play a huge part in the environment. Butterflies are an example of a broad variety of other invertebrates,
which includes two-thirds of all species. They naturally provide multiple environmental benefits, which include pollination and
natural pest control. They benefit the ecosystem, while they also provide predators with nutrients who consume butterflies. By
keeping butterflies around, this helps stabilize and maintain the food chain.
After doing some interviewing and research, I found that an effective way to get more students involved in the program
would be to have them interact with other schools to showcase gardens that they put together. Perhaps put together a scholarship
or grant to help different schools launch this project. I feel if more schools bonded about this project, it would raise awareness
and help people realize that conservation is actually really important to recognize and support.
If all of us could recognize pollinators and appreciate them more often, dont you think that this could lead to a brighter
future? After conducting my research, my eyes have been opened to how crucial these creatures are to the earth and mankind.
Without them, agriculture would eventually collapse, taking away a major part of the food chain. So without this portion of the
food chain, mankind would cease to exist, along with other natural resources. I have also concluded that collaboration among the
youth would be a very effective way to get the pollinator garden program running because by enlightening the youth now, can
better change the future.
For the future students that might be interning here at this organization, I would recommend that you communicate with
the mentors as much as possible so that you continuously have tasks to do instead of just sitting around. I would also recommend
that you take in as much information as you can during this experience about conservation and secretary work. I would also
recommend the pollinator garden program to the mentors and have them continue handing out milkweed to raise awareness about
butterflies.

Appendix
Interview Transcription
Cammi: What is your occupation?
Sarah: Currently I am a biology instructor at miramar college but I am about to travel up to oakland.

Cammi: How long have you worked in the field?

Sarah: I Started my undergraduate degree in biology in 2004, but I graduated in graduate school where i studied ecology this past
year in may. ive been in graduate school since 2009-2015 but ive been in science related jobs the whole time since 2004.

Cammi: Do you feel school participation in the Pollinator Garden Program is important? If so, Why?
Sarah: I feel its important because in san diego its pretty organized, its pretty developed here where its taken away a lot of
pollinators, if we planted pollinators in our own backyards then we could persist in their existence. I also believe in pollinators
for their agriculture purposes.

Cammi: Do you know of any other programs that work with conservation in schools?
Sarah: Theres an organization called kids eco club that works with kids in highschool and conservation related projects. Theres
also a center in solana beach that I believe is called solana center or environmental leadership. I think they run activity and
outreach activities there. I came across them through, I used to work for this group called san diego science alliance and my job
was basically running a science fair for them.

Cammi: Have you had any personal experience working with schools? If so, what was that like?
Sarah: Yeah, well im currently at miramar college. i would teach kids about marine science in the past, while I was at san diego
state I worked with an organization where I would talk to students about research. Marine fish / growth and survival, marine
ecology

Cammi: What are some ways that we can motivate people to participate more in schools pollinator garden programs?
Sarah: When I was in elementary school we had a first grade garden. Making trips/ interacting with other schools/ spending a day
or building a garden with other schools to showcase your garden. having student leaders make relationships with other schools or
clubs who are interested in starting them, spend a day teaching students and teachers trying to maintain them. There might be a
way to apply to a scholarship or grant to help schools launch the project.

Cammi: How do you get people to really care about the issue?

Sarah: I think that experience, not every school comes from a project based school, I think that with handwork project is really
valuable and seeing the issue is really valuable. having schools come to your school to see the issue would be a big help. If they
have the opportunity to go outside and plant with you thatd be really successful.

Cammi: How important do you think it is to get our youth involved in conservation?
Sarah: I think its huge, changes that this younger generation that they will see in our lifetime will be bigger than any previous
generation has seen. if we can have our generation not feel defeated by new challenges that we face, such as pollution and
organizations. If students have skills that they feel they have to come above these issues then they can feel excited and work
towards a more sustainable future. If they feel disconnected towards the issues and the environment then itll be a lot harder for
them to do something about these issues.

Works Cited
Hagopian, Joachim. "Death and Extinction of the Bees." Global Research. N.p., 1 Nov. 2015. Web. 07 Jan. 2016.
"Butterflies." - Body, Process, Earth, Life, Plants, Type, Form, Energy, Cells. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Jan. 2016.

"The Pollinator Garden (Lancaster County Master Gardener Program)."Lancaster County Master Gardener Program (Penn State Extension).
N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Jan. 2016.
Wheeler, Sarah. Personal Interview. 15 November 2015.