The AP Environmental Science classes at Diamond Bar High School once again held their annual competition in the hopes of inspiring students to leave a positive imprint on both the community and environment. Judging took place May 21, with The Magic Greenhouse taking first place.

This year’s projects included The Butterfly Effect, Hydro-gen, Light Leaf, EcoBreeze and The Magic Greenhouse.

The Butterfly Effect focused on concerns revolving around the lack of monarch butterflies and a plan to set up a breeding program for them. Hydro-gen emphasized the importance of hydrogen fuel cells and clean energy, while Lightleaf sought to use plants for electricity. EcoBreeze hoped to set up geothermal heating and cooling at South Pointe Middle School while  The Magic Greenhouse restored the DBHS greenhouse located behind the 400 building.

“[I] wanted to know how to better help the environment in both a small and large scale,” junior Rebecca Leung said via Messenger. She was the project president for The Magic Greenhouse.

The team’s goal included renovating the greenhouse, making it fully functional and supplying it with native, drought-resistant plants.

Some of the team members were part of the marketing, art and research groups, each of which played a crucial role in the team’s final product.

“I was really proud of the project because everyone pulled their weight and [we] ended up creating a very sustainable project that will help a lot of people,” junior Rohun Sharma said.

With several teams going up against them, Leung expressed her thoughts about their competition.

“I felt the competition was close between us, Butterfly Effect and Hydro-gen because I knew that they also had very good presidents and managers,” Leung said.

The group’s efforts paid off after securing first place in the competition.

“We didn’t really expect to get first place because we thought that a lot of other groups had maybe better ideas and had a better presentation,” Sharma said. “When we found out, we got first we were very happy, and we realized that all of our hard work did pay off.”

The  Magic Greenhouse has left the restored greenhouse under the care of the DBHS club Planet Arboretum.

“I learned a lot about growing plants and greenhouse maintenance, of course, but I also improved my public speaking and learned how to keep cool under very, very stressful situations,” Leung said.