Author Archives: Chloe Sprecker

Batting Bugs Naturally

2017, Milliken, Colorado, USA

Devyn Wood
Roosevelt High School, Milliken, Colorado

When Devyn was a child, she lived in Washington State where there were hundreds of bats living near her home. After moving to Colorado, she noticed there were few, if any, bats in the area of her new home.
Understanding the connection between bat populations, insect populations and insecticide use, she decided to build bat houses and install them around her watershed. The project requires (1) determining locations to install bat houses; (2) building bat houses; and (3) installing bat houses. As the season permits, tracking of bat species can also be undertaken to determine how many bats are in the area. Devyn will be using a bat-detection device to monitor the newly built bat homes for increase in population and species. These results will be available in the fall of 2017.

10 Years of Pollution

2017, Milliken, Colorado, USA

Kristopher Anaya, Thomas Blake, Dalton Yost Colorado student action project
Roosevelt High School, Milliken, Colorado

This proposal involved reducing the use of plastic bags by promoting the use of reusable bags and making the community more aware of recycling them as well. The decomposition process of plastic bags takes more than 10 years which adds an unnecessary volume to the landfills. The team ordered 2000 reusable bags to hand out to students and staff at Roosevelt High School and the community. In addition,
the team redesigned the plastic bag recycling box at our local grocery store to make the box stand out to plastic bags consumers. This project has increased the use of reusable Colorado student action project grocery bags in the community while decreasing plastic in the local landfill.

Biodegradable Lunch Waste Project

2017, Greeley, Colorado, USA

Mazlyn Freier LUNCH WASTE PROJECT student action Colorado
Greeley Central High School, Greeley, Colorado

Mazlyn Freier from Greeley Central High school identified her school’s problem of adding over 10,000 Styrofoam plates from the school lunch program to the local landfill every year. Mazlyn contacted the school district Nutrition Services to determine the convert her school to compostable sugarcane plates in the cafeteria. Mazlyn contacted local companies for samples of their compostable plates. Finally, she selected Eco Products, a local food service supplier from Boulder, Colorado, for the sugarcane plates for the school. 19 cases of plates were ordered and delivered to the school for use in the cafeteria. In addition, Mazlyn contacted a local composting service that agreed to pick up the colorado student action lunch waste project plate waste twice a week. The school has been using these plates since April of 2017, and plan on continuing this practice. Mazlyn has contacted the other schools in the district with the goal of implementing this program throughout Greeley.

Jacob’s Big Project

2017, Cinncinnati, Ohio, USA
Jacob
Jacob’s big project is a coloring book for kids developed and designed by Molly Mariani, Abi Barret and Ashley Moher. The coloring book has several interactive pages that gets students of all ages involved in the conservation message. Along with the book, Ashley, Molly and Abi designed several worksheets for different age children. The one for younger students has pictures and the kids describe whether it’s helpful or harmful. The worksheets for older kids include a vocabulary sheet.

The team knew from the start that they wanted to do a project that involved younger students. They didn’t just want to design a book, so they thought if they made it more interactive, they could get younger students to understand their role in protecting the environment. Designing a coloring book that the younger students could color on was one way the girls could get the students more involved. They also made a change to their original plan by adding the interactive worksheets so that they could measure the students understanding of the problems and test their knowledge. The addition really boosted their project because it allowed them to measure their success through the kid’s ability to complete the activity worksheets.
Jacob
To implement their project, Ashley, Molly and Abi visited local schools, which included a preschool and an elementary school. For the preschoolers, they read the book aloud to them then the preschoolers completed the “helpful or harmful” activity. For the elementary school visit, the kids read along with the story and colored the book. After the book was finished, they completed the vocab sheet to apply their knowledge.

Ecospace

2017, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

EESl N°1 Nacional of San Antonio de Areco: Students: Patricio Espinoza, Jeremias Nahuel Nievas

This project proposes to create a space, within the school premisses, in which students can come in contact with renewable energies and its relationship with environmental care and global warming.

ecospace implementation

They found a busy place where lots of students pass everyday that now its illuminated by photovoltaic solar energy system and have dynamic panels with information of interest on the proposed topic. The information have visual and digital format so that students can see and carry the information in their electronic devices.

In addition, they propose this place as a reservoir of information prepared by teachers and students from this highschool, that can be shared with other schools within the basin.

Groundskeeperbot

2017, Carmen de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

EES N°2 “Mariano Moreno” of Carmen de Areco: Student: Paula Perez Bianchi

This project is based on robotic and artificial intelligence technologies. At its first stage,Paula developed a robotic module that meets the irrigation needs of a garden. The system uses Arduino microcontrollers and an artificial intelligence node in charge of learning the different biological conditions to be able to make irrigation decisions based on soil moisture and plant demand.

The University of San Antonio de Areco (UNSAdA) sponsored a trip to the student to participate.

App Life

2017, San Andres de Giles, Buenos Aires, Argentina

app life EET N°1 of San Andrés de Giles. Students: Tomás Pellegrini,Valentina Miranda, Joaquín Coarasa, Cecilia Yucra Ramos.

This project suggests the creation of an application for mobile devices that warns about agrochemical spraying in the local areas and rural schools of the Areco river basin.This application is called APP VIDA, and has already been developed to be executed on phones, tablets and other mobile devices. This project is an easy and effective solution to a current problem of high social impact in the basin surroundings.

Status: The students have created the platform and are waiting for the Municipality to administer the rest of the information required for launch.

Reducing Water Use with Faucet Aerators

2016, Sacramento, California, USA

Faucet Aerators student implementation project California winner photo Brian Shan was proud to place first in the 2015 Caring for our Watersheds contest for his proposal to install aerators on faucets in his school. Faucet aerators deliver a mixture of water and air, limiting how much water is released while maintaining pressure and reducing splashing. The aerators, relatively inexpensive and easy to install, help conserve water and reduce energy use and costs.

Brian met with his school principal and facilities director to obtain permission to make this easy upgrade that would have the potential to reduce water use from hand washing by 40%. After obtaining approval he purchased aerators and installed them in 18 sinks located in bathrooms on his school’s campus. Knowing that this relatively simple project can save a lot of water, Brian plans on extending his project to other schools in his district.

Water Conservation….easy as 1, 2, 3 (or at least installing the aerators!)

Notes of Nature

2016 San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

EES N°2 Escuela Pannunzio, San Antonio de Areco.

The project proposed the realization of an educational mural on the walls of the school that represents the harmony and beauty of nature accompanied by musical concepts.

implementation of notes of nature Four murals were painted along the wall, which form a musical circuit, intertwining nature, the seasons, and the different pictorial art styles.

Each visual narration represent the magnificence of a musical work in 4 meters in length, and the flora and fauna are represented inside.

This is now a place that reminds the students every day of caring for the whole World.

implementation of notes of nature

Musical Nature

2016, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

EESTN°2 . Escuela Pannunzio, San Antonio de Areco.

The project proposes to compose a melody inspired by nature in a collaborative way with students from other places. The project was carried out with the help of a composer specialized in collaborative musical composition, called Hernán Alzieri.