Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Students at a south-central Kansas high school have won a top federal honor for helping create an outdoor wildlife learning site on a spread of native prairie grass.

Goddard High School will receive a President's Environmental Youth Award from an official of the Environmental Protection Agency during an event Wednesday.

For an ecology science course, students at the school about 12 miles west of Wichita conducted field research in botany, aquatic life, biology, migratory studies and water pollution.

They helped restore a 4,000-square-foot area of native prairie grasses on the campus. They also established three beds as a native prairie garden with plants that helped certify the site as a Monarch Way Station for migrating Monarch butterflies.