Author Archives: Chloe Sprecker

Destination: Conservation

2016 Greeley, Colorado, USA

destination-conservation

Madeline, Reina, and Lindy took 3rd place in the Caring for Our Watersheds competition with their proposal Destination: Conservation. The goal of the project was to educate elementary students about their watershed and how to preserve water. The trio thought this was important for two main reasons. First, “The water we have now is the only water we have, and it is our responsibility to protect it.” and second, “youth is the key to our future of sustainability.”

This project was implemented by providing third and fourth grade students the knowledge necessary to create a water-wise world. For example, the students received water efficient faucet heads to help them conserve water in their own homes. These faucets will help families not only save water, but also money, especially helping low-income homes.

Timeline and Budget:

Arranged classroom visits and attendance at Greeley Water Festival ($0)
Made interactive games and a model of what a watershed is two weekends before. Candy was donated as in-kind contribution ($15)
Coordinated water conservation items and water efficient faucet heads with the City of Greeley ($0)
Ordered water bottles as a giveaway ($369)

Collecting Clothes For a Cause

2016 Greeley, Colorado, USA

This proposal involves is having a clothing drive for kids from kindergarten all the way up to seniors in high school. The reason behind this idea, is that when clothes are in a landfill, the dyes used to color the clothes can pollute the groundwater. On top of this, making clothes consumes numerous amounts of water and pollutes the air. Essentially the goal behind this project is to reduce the number of clothes in the landfill by collecting them and also reduce the amount of clothes being produced by donating them.

Timeline and Budget:

March 13th, 2016: Purchased Bins from Home Depot (16) $112
April 6th, 2016: Ordered flyers, handouts, and stickers from fastsigns $297
April 25th, 2016: Set up bins, flyers and sent out handouts. Collected clothes and donated them to charity

Bees: Small but Mighty

2016 Greeley, Colorado, USA

Bees provide up to 1/3 of our diet, which may seem small, but includes a variety of foods such as: fruits, vegetables, grains, and even meat. Kendra’s proposal was to plant gardens with bee-friendly flowers in the community to help these small workers.

By planting these gardens, bees are offered a constant source of nutrients and a healthy habitat that uses no harmful chemicals on the plants. The implementation plan was fairly simple, and included buying the supplies, finding locations, setting up gardens, and planting flowers and plants. “It is easy and anyone can do it.” States Kendra. “The smallest effort can make a huge difference.”

Timeline and Budget:

February 29, 2016 – Figured out location for project and contacted beekeeper Debbie Moors
March 1, 2016 – Brought home donated tires for gardens ($0)
March 31, 2016 – Shopped for garden beds and soil at Home Depot with Susan Payne ($360)
April 28, 2016 – Shopped for plants at Home Depot with Susan Payne ($330)
May 7, 2016- Set up multiple recycled tire gardens around the community
May 8, 2016 – Set up gardens ($0)

Aeration Conservation

2016 Greeley, Colorado, USA

Aeration Conservation is an important way and also a very overlooked way to care for our watersheds. This proposal was to simply install numerous aerators on select faucets at my school, Greeley Central High School. Installing low-flow aerators on faucets will help contribute to water conservation and limit our anthropogenic unsustainable ecological practices. Practices that have degraded, polluted, and thrown us above our present carrying capacity on Earth. Implementation for this project was very simple and can be replicated easily throughout the world.

Timeline and Budget:

February 10, 2016 Contact Ana Gonzalez @ Chicago Faucets
April 27, 2016 Contact Charles Muller @ Parks Supply of America
May 2, 2016 Ordered faucet aerators through Susan Payne @ Poudre Learning Center (x25)($24)

Budget: $1,000
Project Cost: $600

Stripping My Way to a Cleaner Watershed

2016 Greeley, Colorado, USA

Dustin’s initial proposal did not make it to the final 10. However, Dustin believed he had a quality idea to improve his watershed. He raised the money and implemented the project on his own. He was awarded the 2015-2016 Environmental Action Award and $200.

Dustin is a sophomore this year at Greeley Central High school. Dustin’s idea was built around helping to reduce the Carbon Footprint of our school by supplying every teacher’s desk a power strip mounted with Velcro. This allows teachers easy access to the switch so that they can disconnect their energy vampires every night. He purchased the power strips using grant money that the Environmental club, the Green Cats, had received from Wal-Mart for a digital energy information kiosk. He then organized a group of students who went to all 80 classrooms after school and mounted power strips inconvenient locations for the teachers. This was followed by a school wide power down day in which we were able to see in real time how much less energy we were using through a website called PowerTakeOff. The district had set this up for a handful of schools to monitor their power usage. Everyone was involved in this power down day from the custodial staff to the kitchen to the administration. Dustin was instrumental in making this happen. He even put together 80 bags of treats and passed them out to classrooms that were reducing their energy use! This took a huge amount of organization and people managing skills to accomplish! Dustin showed great maturity and leadership throughout this process. If a school can cut down their electrical usage it can reduce the production of harmful particulates in our air and our water.

Thirst Measurement Cups

2016, Daysland, Alberta, Canada

Bria Kroetch, Brooke Hochausen, and Alarie Guhle from Daysland Alberta were tired of seeing kids fill up a glass of water to take one sip, then pour the rest down the drain.

After learning about their Battle River Watershed and the regions limited supply of fresh water, the girls decided to try to save drinking water, one cup at a time. They designed a “thirst measurement cup” to help kids make the connection between their thirst, and how much they should fill their cup.

These three girls did a presentation on watersheds and conserving water to all 250+ students in Thirst Measurement Cups stuident action project central alberta their school. After the presentation, they handed out the cups to all students in grades 1-6.

The cup will not only help students save water on a daily basis, but also embed a habit of water conservation. The goal went beyond saving just the water in the cup, it was also to get students thinking about how they use water, and how they can conserve it. Homes and the school in Daysland should now be seeing lots of water being saved, in the cup and beyond!

The cup has 4 measurement lines indicating “Almost Quenched”, “Just need a drink”, “Thirsty”, and “Dry as Dust”.

LIFE (Lacombe Irrigation Foods Experiment) & Beewise

2016, Lacombe, Alberta, Canada

Lacombe Composite High School has an active agriculture class and eco team, which have resulted in an amazing school greenhouse, aquaponics system and outdoor gardens.

One of the challenges that many schools face is having their gardens watered in the summer months when students are away.

The other challenge is watering the gardens efficiently to save water, while helping the plants grow.

Rachel Reitsma and Avy Lamb, students in the LEAFS initiatve, decided to conquor both Life & BeeWise native pollinator home outdoor gardens central alberta challenges by installing a drip irrigation system in their gardens. The irrigation tube (shown left) is dug into the soil to water the plant’s roots while minimizing the rate of evaporation. The system could also be set on a timer to water regullary, with options to delay watering if there is significant rainfall.

The other cool project implemented at the school this year is a Beewise- a home for native pollinators. Pollinators such as bees are facing a drastic decline in their population. This can harm the plants, including our food, which rely on pollinators.

This Beewise pollinator home provides much needed habitat, while ensuring the school’s gardens get the pollination they need.

Ducks Unlimited Bake Sale

2016, Bashaw, Alberta, Canada

Bailie McDonald in Bashaw wanted to Ducks Unlimited Bake sale Bailie with baked goods student action projects help protect her watershed by protecting wetlands. She learned that wetlands are important habitat for lots of animals, help improve water quality, and help store water for dry times.

Bailie wasn’t sure how she could protect a wetland, but knew that Ducks Unlimited did lots of great work in her area, including a site called the Pileated Project near her home.

After discussing her desire to help protect wetlands with her family, Bailie decided that one thing she could do was to bake some yummy treats and host a bake sale at her school. The money she raised could then be donated to Ducks Unlimited to help with their Pileated Project.

The bake sale raised $200 which was then matched with the Caring for our Watersheds implementation funding. She presented the $400 cheque to Ducks Unlimited staff and volunteers at a local event.

This project proves that no matter a person’s background skills, they are able to help improve their watershed!

Down Cycle

2016, Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada

Emily Jackson from Wetaskiwin, Alberta decided that she could help improve the watershed by
reducing the amount of disposable water bottles used at her school.

Her Caring for our Watersheds project involved installing a water-bottle fill-up station in the main foyer of the Wetaskiwin Composite Highschool. Not only that, but she worked with the student council to sell reusable water bottles and post information about reducing waste and the benefits of reusable bottles next to the station.

Emily is happy to leave this legacy of down cycling at her school as she heads off to university.

“Down Cycling”, which is to use less, is even better then recycling, which still uses a lot of energy and resources.

Accommodating Biodiversity in Our Watershed

2016, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

2016 marked the third time Simran Panesar had entererd into the Caring for our accommodating biodiversity student planting central alberta Watersheds program, and the third time she was in the final competition.

Building on projects she had done in the past, in 2016 Simran wanted to incorporate tree planting and improving biodiversity at her new school, W.P. Wagner.

Her project was two parts, planting trees and putting up bird houses in the schools yard, which is part of the Mill Creek watershed.

To get help with the tree planting, Simran invited grade 6 students (who learn about trees and forests in their science curriculum) from her old school, A. Blair McPherson. The class was treated to a full day of activities including a pizza lunch, a leaf based art project, playing a biodiversity game, and finally, participating in planting trees.

The community organization Roots for Trees helped source the 45 trees, brought the equipment, and helped teach the students how to plant. The trees were a mix of native trees including Saskatoon, Lodgepole Pine, and Red Osier dogwood.
The bird houses have also been installed and are bringing more biodiversity to the school.