Many young people struggle with eco-anxiety, but Grandview Heights Schools’ pollinator education programs help students channel their worries into caring for their local environment.
Elizabeth Page, RaeAnna Wieland
Larson Middle School students explore the school's pollinator garden.
Jessica Fields, a 21st-century learning coach at Grandview Heights Schools, says students can sign up for Garden Club to learn about the critical role that pollinators and native plants play in their daily lives. After finding success at the middle and high school levels, and with support from a donation by Grandview Heights High School alumni Warren Klink and Carolyn Guggenaster Wyman, the program expanded to include third graders in the 2025-26 academic year.
For Fields, this growth feels incredibly exciting. She says 36 third-graders willingly worked in the elementary school garden instead of going to recess, showcasing a genuine, fiery passion for fostering healthy ecosystems in their own backyards and beyond.
“Starting this momentum in the third grade is going to exponentially impact our Middle School Garden Club and, eventually, our Environmental Club at the high school level,” Fields says. “We are planting seeds in more ways than one.”
Elizabeth Page, RaeAnna Wieland
Grandview Heights High School students discuss the design process for the school's pollinator garden.
When it comes to engaging a younger audience, Fields says nurturing and respecting kids’ natural curiosity is a major goal.
“Naturally, students see bright, beautiful ornamental flowers in other gardens or at home and wonder why we can’t just plant those,” Fields says. “It’s been a great teaching moment to explain that while those plants might look pretty to us, they don’t always offer the specialized food or habitat our local Ohio pollinators need to survive.”
To help club members grasp this concept more fully, the teaching staff invited Ohio naturalist Jared Goodykoontz to guide participants’ research into plants that support local wildlife while still looking beautiful.
Such collaborations strengthen students’ resolve to take responsibility for their environment, says Elizabeth Page, a fourth-grade teacher at Larson Middle School and Garden Club advisor.
She shares that even simple activities, such as taking a walking field trip to Boulevard Presbyterian Church’s pollinator garden, can inspire children to keep learning about nature and share that information with others.
Elizabeth Page, RaeAnna Wieland
A Larson Middle School student poses with a milk jug that is being used for winter sowing.
“It’s important for them to have a sense of belonging,” Page says. “They’re excited, and they want to spread the knowledge that they’ve gained to other people.”
Of course, gardening isn’t always sunshine and roses.
Page says the clubs sometimes run into roadblocks, such as when their attempt at using a winter sowing technique proved unsuccessful. The method involves planting seeds in recycled containers, such as milk jugs, outside during winter so they can later bloom in spring.
Even though the seeds did not bear fruit, Page says members still learned a valuable lesson: Things don’t always go as planned. Now, students can practice resilience by reworking their approach and trying again, with plans to partner with Sustainable Grandview – a community organization dedicated to keeping Grandview clean – for a pollinator plant giveaway next year.
Ultimately, Page says navigating setbacks as they arise helps build students’ confidence in their ability to advocate for different causes.
“They can have an impact now, and hopefully for the rest of their lives, they can feel like, ‘Oh wow, I can really make a difference on issues that I care about,’” Page says.
Looking ahead, Fields says Garden Club will be offered to K-2 students in the 2026-2027 school year. She hopes the extracurricular will continue to grow, with the construction of an outdoor science lab for high school students being one of the program’s major long-term goals.
Notably, Fields also says the work of faculty advisors and student garden assistants is what will nourish the program for years to come.
“It truly takes a village to grow a garden, and we are so grateful for ours,” Fields says.
Lucy Lawler is a contributing writer at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
