South Florida teacher helps students sow seeds to preserve rare orchid and find their passion

It s called the ghost orchid A group of South Florida students are on a mission to save a rare flower Their instructor is hoping the project plants the seed for future careers in science Heather Walker has their story in this Spotlight Florida is home to more than types of orchids And these students are studying one of the rarest Domenica Arias I think it s key for us to preserve these orchids It s called the ghost orchid Students at Jose Marti MAST Academy are are on a mission to try and grow as various as they can Hailey Marquez We know that they are highly endangered It takes a lot of time it takes a lot of patience and they don t grow in a day These students are members of the school s botany club With the help of their educator Andrew Kearns they re learning all about orchids especially the extremely rare ghost orchid Andrew Kearns The ghost orchid is something which has been treasured by countless people too treasured by a few who try to poach it Our native orchids were largely removed from a large number of of our urban areas and suburban areas by poaching and developments But there won t be any poaching here The students have planted and nurtured their own ghost orchids right in their own backyard Hailey Marquez It s nice to be able to sponsorship a population of ghost orchids here in our very own school The students received the orchid seeds from the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden as part of the garden s Million Orchid Project The project aims to save Florida s native orchids by planting one million of them in urban areas Hailey Marquez It s definitely nice to be in it and it gives me opportunities to research like this and to work with plants really hands-on Students first kept the seedlings inside a classroom to scrutiny their advance After a limited months they were moved outside and attached to trees The hope is that the orchids take root and eventually bloom Andrew Kearns Now is that going to survive Participant Maybe Andrew Kearns Maybe I think that s a great answer because we don t know And in the process the students are learning a valuable lesson about life Domenica Arias Honestly just patience Having to wait to be able to see what your work has made was the hardest part honestly Being able to take part in this amazing experiment has been able to make me see my interest in life sciences Their trainer hopes this conservation work inspires his students for the rest of their lives Andrew Kearns That s my hope is that they will be triumphant in making a change so that our natural world will not suffer selected of the difficulties that we re suffering right now Perhaps their efforts in the classroom will bloom a new generation of scientists Heather Walker News If you know of a person place or group that you think we should highlight email us at spotlight wsvn com