2nd graders wishing Bon Voyage to Brownie, the Monarch!

by Ethan Robison, Pollinator Pals Education Coordinator

The charismatic Monarch butterfly Danaus plexippus had a strange year in 2025, just like many of us. Their populations tend to peak in August, when most of the adults eclose from their chrysalis to the warm summer sun and upward drafts that carry them Southwards. But there I was on a chilly October afternoon, releasing a freshly eclosed female (you could tell because her hind wings lacked two noticeable black spots, which the males have for releasing pheromones) to hopefully survive the chill and make her way to Southern California. While she didn’t have the sun warming her back, she did have the enthusiastic cries of support from two dozen second graders from Ruch Outdoor Community School.

A bit more than 1 year ago, in February 2025, Kim Neiswanger, the 2nd grade teacher at Ruch Outdoor Community School (Ruch), reached out to Pollinator Pals, asking how to bring more pollinators to her school. Kim was especially interested because her classroom is located right next to the school garden. 

Ruch, and Kim’s class, present quite a contrast to many of the other schools in the Medford School District that we’ve worked with, with the main difference being the connection to the outdoors that the staff intentionally and diligently foster in each of the students. In fact the values of “responsible citizenship and environmental stewardship” are built right into their mission statement. This connection is made by providing access to living outdoor spaces with blooming gardens, shade-giving madrones, solar panels, murals, and more. Hidden on campus was a pollinator garden, with a butterfly bush, culinary mint plants pouring out of several of the beds, and milkweed filling up a long metal canoe. There is also a bathtub painted to look like Charlie Brown's shirt, which I find quite endearing. Kim and I chatted, and together we came up with a plan for getting more pollinators to the garden. We scheduled the first lesson for September. 

Lesson 1: Destruction

The 2nd grade students were already enthusiastic about pollinators, nature, gardening, soil, and all of those amazing things that kids tend to appreciate on some level. The schools’ values of loving the environment had taken root already. Despite this, there are aversions to the outdoors that can crop up; the sensory discomfort from itchy plants or harsh sunlight can be unpleasant, and getting your hands dirty can be new to some students. One way to overcome this aversion is to appeal to a student’s innate desire for destruction. Our first step in remodeling the garden was to tear the old plants out, root by stubborn root. The removed mint left new space for native plants that do a better job at supporting pollinators.

Students removing non-natives and weeds from pollinator garden beds ....

The students then used the various ravaged plants to construct their own model pollinator gardens. Nothing was wasted, and the students had fun exercising their destructive and creative muscles for the benefit of pollinators!

... to make artful pollinator gardens in a box!

Lesson 2: The Little Things

Since these lessons were happening in the Fall, not every day was sunny. Like bees, I can feel a bit slow or tired on dark and cold days. Unlike me (a human), bees are ectotherms, meaning that their body temperature is directly affected by the temperature around them. Some can fight that cold and dreary feeling by vibrating their flight muscles rapidly, but for me (a human who lacks flight muscles) the best cure to a gloomy day is showing students dead bugs under microscopes. After a lesson on pollinator identification and adaptations, I set the 2nd graders loose, instructing them to rotate amongst their groups to observe all of the interesting species and specimens that I brought along. With this age group, I usually just leave it at the observation; these students were a bit more advanced, so I decided to increase the complexity. In addition to observing the specimens, each student also had to guess what it was. Was it a bee? How about a wasp or fly? They worked together, each putting forth their own guesses, and together they came to a consensus on their ID. My faith in them was well founded, as their ID’s were usually pretty accurate, narrowing it down to the Order at least.

I’m always so overjoyed to see how much excitement and fascination can come from sitting and observing little things, and how adept students can be when it comes to group discussion. I left the classroom that day feeling much more bright and cheery than I was  before the lesson, despite the weather. 

Lesson 3: PLANT TIME!

Each of the Ruch 2nd grade students was assigned a native pollinator-friendly plant. Their job was to use the CalScape and OregonFlora databases to research their plant's environmental requirements and its pollinator relationships, then create a piece of art about their plant. After several weeks of research, the students got to meet these plants, looking at their leaves and stems, before removing them from little plastic pots and putting them in their prepared garden. Using what they learned, the students organized the plants into categories based on which pollinators they support and how much sun and water they require.

Designing one of the garden beds with plants and plant cards

I was lucky enough to be joined by long-time PPRV volunteer Hannah Borgerson, who actually used to teach at Ruch! While we were setting up for the lesson in the garden, several students came up to Hannah, asking if she recognized them. She did, of course, despite the fact that some of these kids had doubled in height since she had last seen them! I haven’t been teaching quite long enough for that to happen, but I hope that I, or the lessons I teach, stick with kids in a similar way. Kim, Hannah, and I worked with the students, showing them how deep the plants needed to be placed into the ground, and how to break up the roots with their hands. It took some work, and some problem solving, but it came together wonderfully! I was really touched by the thought and care these students put into their plant placement. One student, planting the Pearly Everlasting, wanted to make sure that his plant was close to the small overhanging deck of the canoe, so that if a pollinator visited the flower while it was raining, they could seek shelter from the storm while still getting pollen from the flower. Adorable!

Prepping the canoe bed

After the planting was complete, I unveiled the special surprise I had brought along from the Pollinator Project Rogue Valley office: a Monarch butterfly that had just eclosed that morning. The students were SO excited to see this large orange lady, especially since a few weeks prior, their school had been pleasantly swarmed by hundreds of California Tortoiseshell Butterflies. After a short deliberation, the class decided on the name “Brownie” for the Monarch. I assume that since snacktime would be the class activity immediately after my lesson, the students had food on the brain at that moment. Who knows, maybe Brownie’s descendants will visit Ruch, and their new pollinator garden! 

Lesson 4: Seeds

The last lesson I had for the 2nd graders in 2025 was on how they could use and share the garden that they created. Seed cleaning is one of my favorite lessons to run because it scratches the destructive itch (crushing the dried plants to separate the seed from the chaff) while also encouraging the student to take the initiative and start their own garden. It is a great representation of our goal at PPRV, which is to teach people about the amazing science of native plants and pollinators, then give them the tools to make a difference for the wildlife in their community. While we can never be certain if the plants will grow, or will even be planted in the first place, we can definitely attempt to inspire people to care enough to try. The 2nd graders made their own seed envelopes, carefully writing the name, sun and water requirements, and the stratification needs of their seeds before heading outside to begin the activity. When I run this lesson, I lay the dried plants and flower heads down in a box, line the kids up single-file, and play some music while they each take turns dancing on the seeds. We listened to the Charlie Brown Halloween Special soundtrack. I always encourage energetic stompy dances, since that’s what the seeds require in order to be freed from the chaff. I then sift and winnow, before having each child take two pinches of seeds for their labeled yellow envelope - each holding the beginnings of their own pollinator garden. 

And We Have ART!

As a finale to these lessons, PPRV converted the students' art and transformed into informational panels to educate the students, teachers, and visitors about the native plants growing in the pollinator garden. Stay tuned for more about these beautiful signs - and the hats!

Here's one of the 13 panels!

I’ll wrap up by expressing how grateful I am that PPRV has been able to bring these sorts of learning opportunities to students across Southern Oregon. There is so much joy that can come from being fascinated by nature, and every child should have access to that.

I am looking forward to running more classes with the students at Ruch, and I am grateful for the opportunity to share the plants and pollinators of Southern Oregon with the community. Together, we are helping to make a difference for students and pollinators alike. 

Learn more about Pollinator Pals on our website here.