By Esther Lauaki
A neglected site at Melton Secondary College is undergoing a transformation.
Year 9 students have been working on designing and constructing a garden to attract butterflies.
The school is one of more than 200 to receive a grant from the Powerful Youth Projects program which aims to encourage young people to care for and learn about their natural environment.
Supervising teacher Rod Cochrane said the students were “delighted” to receive the grant to start the project.
“The garden has a wide range of native flowering plants which will attract insects, butterflies and nectar-eating birds,” Mr Cochrane said.
“The garden is on a hill area which was until now a grassed area which had very low biodiversity and often was a harbor for weeds and often was just dry grass … it is almost complete and is a vast improvement on the previous use of the site.
“Hands-on learning is a powerful educational tool and we are lucky to have many eager and excited students who are involved in the project.”
Other projects made possible by the Powerful Youth Projects grants include building vegie and bushtucker gardens, indigenous and sensory gardens, bee hives, frog bogs and native revegetation.
