Fairchild Challenge

by: Briana Boone, 11
The Fairchild Challenge is presented by the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, which offers many different contests to high school and middle school students in a variety of subject areas.

The Challenge is presented to schools, public and private, and Fairchild gives points to schools for each contest they participate in. At the end of the year, the school with the most points is awarded with the Fairchild Challenge Award and can even receive up to $1,000 for their winning achievements. This year, Northwest Christian Academy participated in many different contests.

Every single department in our school has contributed in these contests. While elementary, middle school, and high school made a vegetable garden, there were other contests that the high and middle schoolers partook in. The first high and middle school project was the banner contest. The students involved had to paint a banner and make a motto for their city. While the process of brainstorming and planning took a long time, the finished project by several of our freshmen and sophomore girls looked beautiful.

Secondly, high schoolers took up a unique challenge of making fashionable clothing entirely out of plants, all under the supervision of Mrs. Chase. Some of the items used were pumpkin seeds, banana leaves, and Songs of India. Toni Williams, 12, and Warren Villers, 11, served as models for the contest and seniors Olivia Bevel, Toni Williams, and Jamelia Sprott served as our fashion designers and coordinators. Olivia said, “It was really fun, and it was fun to see what creative ideas other people came up with.”

Eighth grader Miles Harrison joined in with a writing challenge, crafting a fictional story about an explorer who finds a previously undiscovered ecosystem and must determine exactly how habitable it was for plants and other life forms.

Lastly, in the fall of last year, a group of middle and high schoolers took a trip to the Botanical Gardens in Coral Gables. There, they were given sketchpads, drawing pencils, and erasers, and were to draw any plant that was in the garden. There were many different ideas and plants to be drawn from. Assortments of flowers, trees, and even landmarks were in their sketching.

The results of the contest will be released later this year, and commend all of our students for taking part in these challenges!