High School - Challenge 5: MOP - Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden

GRADES 9 to 12 | 2026-2027

Challenge 5: Million Orchid Project – Pollination Investigation

YOUR CHALLENGE:

Orchids (Orchidaceae) are grouped in the second-largest flowering plant family with over 26,000 recognized species. This diversity is partly because of the unique pollination strategies of orchids which often can only allow a limited number of species of pollinators to pollinate each plant. For more than 10 years, Fairchild biologists have been working to understand orchid pollination. Innovative conservation practices like artificial pollination and germinating orchids in a lab need to be tested on a species-by-species basis. Now, orchid biologists need your help. By participating in the Million Orchid Project, we will provide your school with a set of flowering orchids and a research protocol to investigate the effectiveness of self pollination (pollinating orchids with their own pollen) compared to cross pollination (exchanging pollen between different individual orchids). Your experiment will determine if these orchids are self compatible or if pollinating with multiple plants is more effective.

Follow the MOP research guide to properly take care of and pollinate your orchids. Collect and analyze data to show the effectiveness of each pollination technique, and share your findings in a 2-3 minute how-to video that educates the next generation of orchid biologists at your school. In the video, show and explain step-by-step the techniques used to hand pollinate, include a photo timelapse of the pollinated flowers, share if your experiment went as expected, and state one way to improve your experiment if you did it again.

Mandatory In-person Teacher Workshop on Saturday 19, 2026 to receive an orchid kit and research protocol

Must have registered for the Workshop by creating a Digital Entry in the Fairchild Challenge Portal for this Challenge by September 18th!

**If you are unable to attend the mandatory workshop, please notify the Challenge team at challenge@fairchildgarden.org

✓ Submission Requirements:
	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
	A 2-3 minute video including: Show step-by-step the techniques used to hand pollinate Weekly photo progression (1 still photo per week) of the flowers after pollination to show seed pod formation (or failure — either result is okay!) If your experiment went the way you thought One way to improve your experiment The video should be made for a general audience but clearly shows your scientific methodology
	Video end credits should include student first name(s) and last initial(s), student grade level(s), teacher name, school name, and the phrase “the 2026-2027 Fairchild Challenge’s Million Orchid Project Challenge″.
	AI use is permitted in the Fairchild Challenge, but full disclosure of what AI-based model and prompts were used is required. If AI use is detected without disclosure, the entry will be disqualified. Note: The Fairchild Challenge still strongly encourages original non-AI based designs and written work. Please be mindful that there is an environmental cost each time AI is used!
	Submissions due and Data sheet completed by March 19, 2027 by 5:00 p.m.
	Digital Entry Form with datasheet and video attached.
	On-time submission. Late submissions will be accepted with a reduction in points.
	Two submissions per school.

CHALLENGE RESOURCES:

For this Challenge, Fairchild is proud to partner with

Important Dates

Registration Form Due for participation in this Challenge by:

Friday, September 18, 2026

*Only schools that have created a Digital Entry Form in the Fairchild Challenge Portal will be eligible to participate in this Challenge

MANDATORY In-person Teacher Workshop at Fairchild:
Saturday, September 19, 2026

Create a Digital Entry Form to RSVP by September 18, 2026

Submissions and Data Sheets Due:
Friday, March 19, 2027 by 5:00pm

**If you are unable to attend the mandatory workshop, please notify the Challenge team at challenge@fairchildgarden.org

Point Breakdown
Participants per submission	Group
Maximum number of points per submission	100
Maximum number of submissions per school	2
1 shared datasheet per school
Bonus Points for completed data sheet by deadline *One-time application to school’s overall score	50

Evaluation Criteria
Rubric for HS Challenge 5 – Coming Soon!

Fairchild City in a Garden Standards

Biodiversity

Endangered Species

Plant Selection

Scientific Output

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