ECO Club members and Year 11 Community Service students from Immanuel Lutheran College on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast recently took journalists from the Sunshine Coast’s Buderim Chronicle and Sunshine Coast Daily into the school’s rainforest to share some interesting stories.
The journalists in tow learned the story of the Buderim holly, an endangered shrub of which there are only 1000 left worldwide. It’s found on hilly slopes and next to stream banks and isn’t a terribly resilient plant, hence its current predicament.
Students went to find and tag the holly so they can keep track of it. This will enable them to monitor if it’s increasing, decreasing or if its numbers are stable. These ECO Club members and Community Service students will collect data on the plant – which was the subject of a Queensland Government study in 2007 which classified it as endangered.
The Buderim holly plays an important part in contributing to the biodiversity of Immanuel’s lush rainforest.
This year, Immanuel Lutheran College built an environmental education centre, demonstrating how seriously it takes its role as a steward of the environment. Teaching students how to look out for what’s around them is community science in action; inspiring learning and building community.