Florida is home to more than 100 different species of beautiful flowering orchids! In the past, that number was even bigger. Fairchild is working hard to bring back Florida’s orchids through the Million Orchid Project (MOP) by working with students at schools like yours to plant out thousands of orchids each year. 

Bringing these special plants back is more than just planting orchids on trees or in the ground. These orchids need care and protection to ensure they can grow big enough to produce flowers and make more orchids. This is where we need your help to invent creative ways to protect orchids. To help you, Fairchild will provide you with 6 native endangered orchids to plant in your school. Your job is to design and test an innovative strategy that protects these plants from threats like being eaten by hungry iguanas or insects, drying out in the harsh sun, or being trampled during gym class or by school maintenance work.

Protection doesn’t only mean a physical barrier. Threats to orchids come from people simply not knowing the plants are there. You could consider:

• Making a Sign: a sign to put near the orchids telling people what they are and why they matter, so everyone knows to be careful around them
• Communication with school staff: Write a letter to the custodians and groundskeepers about your orchids so they know not to mow, trim, or clean up around them
• Tell the whole school: Share the news with morning announcements, create a poster, or host a class visit so every student and teacher knows your school is helping save Florida’s orchids 
• A physical barrier: something to keep hungry iguanas or careless feet away from the orchids that still allows you and your classmates to enjoy the orchids
• A combination of any of these ideas or something totally new

In the fall, plant the orchids in your schoolyard and put your innovative protection strategy in place. Using the provided orchid health datasheet, take monthly measurements that document how healthy your orchids are and track how well your protection strategy works. Create an orchid protection journal that shares how your protection strategy functions, how effective it was, and ideas on how to make your protection strategy better for the next generation of orchids. 

Registration Form due for participation in this Challenge by September 18, 2026, at 5:00 pm 

• • Only schools that have created a Registration Form (Digital Entry) in the Fairchild Challenge Portal by September 18 will be eligible to participate in this Challenge

Teacher Workshop and plant/material pick up at Fairchild Garden on October 3, 2026

**If you cannot make it to the in-person workshop but would still like to participate in this Challenge, please reach out to the Challenge team at challenge@fairchildgarden.org 

Orchid Protection Journal includes this information: 

• A drawing of your protection strategy with important features labeled
• A simple graph of the health of your orchids over time to reflect on the effectiveness of your protection strategy
• A recommendation on whether or not you recommend other schools use your protection strategy
• At least one idea on how to make your protection strategy better for the next generation of orchids

Digital Entry Form

• School and student information only.
• Electronic uploads of your entry will not be reviewed