NATURE MURAL
January 2025 - Nature Immersion Days
In January 2025, all 1,200 MVMS students participated in nature learning and were wowed by the diversity present in the open space in our very own backyard (in the canyon adjacent to the PE fields). Over three days, expert docents from Friends of Los Penasquitos Canyon and City of San Diego park rangers curated the learning for the middle schoolers who rotated through five interpretive stations during their science period. A couple of examples of student learning:
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True or False? An acorn with a “hat” is healthier than an acorn that is hatless. The answer is false. Acorns that fall from trees with hats intact may be more prone to disease and less viable for planting.
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Did you know that San Diego is a bee haven? About 700 of North America’s 5,200 bee species live here. Many of these bees are solitary. They live in holes in the ground and are associated with singular species of plants.
Here is the detailed curriculum and a summary of student reactions to the many new and interesting facts learnt.
April 2025 - Mural Comes to Life
Students were invited to suggest mural proposals for the handball courts based on what they had learnt at the Nature Immersion Days. Artists from the non-profit ArtReach used student proposals and the nature curriculum provided to create two mural suggestions. In March, the entire student body as well as teachers, staff, alumni and community voted for their favorite design. Votes were tallied and ArtReach prepared the winning design to be painted and almost 200 community members helped paint the mural on April 5th. Over the next three weeks, artists from ArtReach finalized the mural and put the finishing touches!
This mural is the largest mural in Poway Unified School District and is a vibrant and visual daily reminder of why we need to learn about and protect our environment.
Reel link from community paint day and ArtReach link about mural:
"Without bees, the whole food chain would fall apart."
"That there are tons of bees, and some only use 1 flower."
"I enjoyed the seed ball stations the most because it was very fun throwing the seed balls over the fence. I loved how we had fun while still learning and making a difference in the world."
"I enjoyed the Oaks and the Mastings of trees. I enjoyed it because I’ve seen the acorns around the school, but I never knew animals could eat them."
"A roadrunner can eat a venomous snake."
"If acorns float, it means they have a tiny hole because a bug crawled inside and ate the inside out."
"I liked number 5 sensory observations because it was very calming, and I really liked just closing my eyes and enjoying the noises. I also liked it because I liked looking in the little clear boxes with a piece of nature in it."
"I learned that we disturb nature a lot just because of noise, for example, when we did the walk, the noise of the kids at P.E. was louder than the noises birds make, so that would make it difficult for birds to communicate with each other."
"I personally enjoyed the Species Conservation talk, because of the taxidermy animals. Not only that, they did also explain how some things work in the real world."
"I'll tell my family that we should go to the nearby parks I learned about to find native species. I didn't know we had that many parks in SD!"
6TH GRADE
7TH GRADE
8TH GRADE
