Local heroes in biodiversity

The Eco Team at Uni-Tots Nursery has won first prize in Edinburgh’s BiodiverCity 2010 competition.

The £500 prize was awarded to the team for developing ideas on how to protect local biodiversity.

Local winners

The competition invited schools and nurseries from around Edinburgh to take part.

The Uni-Tots Eco Team, which included three pre-school children, won in its neighbourhood category with an entry that was put together using ideas from the children.

The toddlers used the nursery’s outdoor space and their homes for inspiration.

The team’s submission suggested building a pond with aquatic plants and buying a small beehive to encourage insects into the garden, among other ideas.

Future project

The Eco Team will use the award money to start its biodiversity garden project.

It plans to source professional advice, buy plants and wildlife for a pond and develop a bee-attractant planting area.

It has been fantastic to win this award for Uni-Tots. The children put a great deal of effort into creating the mind map we made to accompany the entry and were extremely interested in the project. It created a lot of ideas and discussion, which will be the start of our new biodiversity garden project.