Author Archives: Holly Pousett

HELPING THE LOCAL ROSELAWN COMMUNITY

2018, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES

Maegan, Annah, and Lydia took action to help their local watershed by catching rainwater and creating a drip irrigation system that will nourish a garden. Their focus is to help the New Prospect Baptist Church in Roselawn, OH. Their plan is to help them utilize rainwater and turn it into a fresh garden for the people of the community. The drip irrigation system they put in place will accommodate five-100 ft beds and it will grow yummy fruits veggies to promote health and good environmental habits. They feel this is something they can do to extensively help the watershed and community.

On April 7 2018, the girls and their families and friends woke up early to go to the church to complete their project. With all the family and friends there were many volunteers that came and helped them. First, a videographer from the Watershed project asked the girls questions about the project. They filmed Annah and Lydia as they participated in the ripple challenge around the world. After filming, they laid out the hundreds of feet of tubing across the garden. They carefully poked holes spaced 3 feet apart. Finally, they inserted pipes for the water to flow so the crops could receive water. These steps are key to a successful drip irrigation system.

The purpose of this project is to use resources already available but not in its current form for the community. By building the drip irrigation system Annah, Lydia, and Maegan were able to save money on the water that would have had to be used to water the gardens at the Roselawn church. This is because the water is being supplied from rainfall and will be dispersed into the gardens on a timed system. They have high hopes that this new system will provide fresh foods to the people in Roselawn. This will have a long lasting impact on the community because of the food desert they live in. Going forward, the fresh fruits and vegetables grown through the use of the drip irrigation system will supplement the diets of those living in the area creating a healthier community.

SAVING THE WORLD ONE LIGHT BULB AT A TIME

2018, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES

Light Bulb

Luke Erny, Kayla Roeske, and Canton Hausfeld’s idea was to decrease the amount of energy used,and wasted, from lightbulbs in their community. For their project, they gave out new, energy efficient light bulbs to community members in exchange for old incandescent bulbs. This event took place at the Wyoming Civic Center on April 15th. This exchange gave the citizens of Wyoming the opportunity to trade their old light bulbs at no cost. These light bulbs would save them money and more importantly reduce the amount of energy used. Flyers were handed out with the lightbulbs to explain the project and why making the switch to energy efficient bulbs helps the environment and is better than incandescent bulbs.

The energy efficient light bulbs that the group implemented in homes around their community were GE Daylight LED bulbs. They were general purpose, so citizens could use them in as many ways as possible. They were a 60 watt replacement that used only 10 watts in return. These bulbs were predicted to last around 13 years. They save $83 in energy cost vs. a 60 Watt incandescent A19 bulb over the bulb’s life. With this in mind, and because we gave out all 300 light bulbs, our group has saved $24,900 worth of energy overall. The estimated energy cost of a single bulb is $1.20 per year. The annual cost of all these light bulbs would be only $360. This saves people time, energy, and money using the LED energy efficient bulbs rather than regular incandescent.

LED energy efficient light bulbs are better for the environment because they use less energy than regular bulbs which in the end means less pollution is produced. Less energy use reduces the demand from power plants and decreases greenhouse gas emissions. Most power plants burn coal, crude oil, and fossil fuels which is inexpensive, but gives off harmful byproducts like carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides. These bulbs also produce less heat, so cooling your house will cost less. Energy efficient light bulbs last longer than incandescent light bulbs, so you don’t have to buy new ones as often and you aren’t throwing away as many bulbs. 60 pounds of incandescent bulbs were collected from the exchange event and were taken to a recycling center where they were disposed of properly.

RECHARGING OUR WATERSHED

2018, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES

Since the production of electricity is harmful to the environment, it is crucial to try to reduce the amount of electricity humans use. Using the knowledge that electrically charged cell phones are an increasingly part of teenager’s lives, seniors Victoria Wilhelmy and Olivia Hartman and juniors Mia Semler and Tara Franke created an eco-friendly alternative to regular phone charging that could be implemented in their own school, The Summit Country Day.

Their solution to this energy-consuming phone dilemma was to create two public phone charging stations that run completely off solar energy. These two stations are located in sunny, popular areas of their four-story school building. Each station consists of three solar powered phone chargers that stick onto the windows. Accordingly, with each charger are cables designed to charge a variety of phones. Along with the actual chargers is a sign that explains to students not only what the stations are, but also what the environmental effects of using these chargers are. Consequently, students are able to benefit from the phone charger and become more environmentally conscious.

The actual process of making the stations was very simple. After ordering all the materials online and having them shipped to the school, the final step was just sticking the chargers to the windows and putting up the sign that explained to students what they were. This easy solution just shows how simple it can be to help the environment.

Victoria, Olivia, Mia, and Tara are all excited and proud that their eco-friendly alternative will benefit not only the future generations of high schoolers that come through the halls of the Summit, but also the quality of the environment in the future. As long as solar energy, a renewable source, is available, so are their chargers.

Recharging

CREATING A MORE BEAUTIFUL TOMORROW

2018, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES
Beautiful Tomorrow

While driving to and from school, Lily Melink would notice maintenance crews mowing the medians and berms of highways and local roads. She realized that mowing and maintaining acres of grass multiple times a year is responsible for releasing varying levels of CO2. Since the burning of fossil fuels is the main contributor to the high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, Lily wanted to find an effective solution to reduce the number of times the grass had to be cut, and therefore reduce CO2 emissions. She decided to plant wildflowers in these spaces to replace grass because wildflowers only require maintenance once a year.

This project was inspired by programs for planting wildflowers in North Carolina and Texas that Lily had read about. When her environmental science teacher introduced the Caring For Our Watersheds program to her class, Lily decided that it would be the perfect opportunity to implement a similar project in Cincinnati. She read more about wildflowers and learned that they have more benefits to the environment than just reducing the amount of maintenance and therefore CO2. Wildflowers also help prevent erosion and provide habitat area for wild life such as pollinators.
Beautiful Tomorrow

Lily hopes that her project can educate the public on simple actions they can take to benefit the environment and increase community pride in their surroundings. She has already had positive feedback from the public, and says that “It doesn’t take much to make a positive impact on the environment or a community!

T-SHIRT SCARVES FOR HOMELESS HEARTS

2018, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES

Every event today is seemingly paired with a commemorative t-shirt. This causes a problem for the watershed because for each new t-shirt made, humongous amounts of water are used. Also, these commemorative t-shirts are often just thrown away when they could be used further. To combat these two problems, Lauren and Jenice set up a collection at their school to collect these t-shirt that to others seemed to be at the end of their lives. Then, the two along with volunteers created scarves out of the t-shirts that were too worn to donate. This way the scarves could be used again.

The first step of the project was the collection of the t-shirts. Lauren and Jenice utilized the class competition system at their school in order to create excitement for their project. Each grade was given a designated bin to put their t-shirts. The grade that collected the most t-got points in the overall school competition. The collection went on for two weeks from March 19 to March 29. Every couple of days, the t-shirts were counted, and the number was relied to the students in order to keep up the competitive spirit. In the end, the collection managed to bring in a whopping 511 t-shirts to be turned into scarves or donated.

Next came the process of making the scarves. First, all of the t-shirts were washed and dried to make sure they were clean. Then the t-shirts were sorted, with the t-shirts too worn to be donated going towards making scarves. Lauren and Jenice then set up a day to get volunteers to help cut and braid all of the t-shirts into scarves. The design of the scarves were four strand braids, long enough to be wrapped around twice and thick enough to act as an effective scarf. With an army of volunteers, Lauren and Jenice were able to turn many worn and torn t-shirts into lovely scarves to donate. Lastly, all of the scarves and t-shirts were donated to Valley Interfaith Community Resource Center while the t-shirt parts that were not part of the scarves were donated to Matthew 25 Ministries.

Homeless Hearts

SCHOOL YARD CLEAN-UP

2018, RED DEER, ALBERTA, CANADA
School Yard Clean up
Four years before this project, the garbage bins at the two main entrances to Glendale School were torn down by vandals and were never replaced. This led to a lot of unnecessary garbage being dropped on the ground by students eating their snacks and then having no place to put their garbage.

In 2018, a group of students and teachers wanted to make a change on this issue as they could see the harmful effects of all this garbage being blown around. They proposed installing multiple garbage bins in high traffic areas outside of the school so that there would always be a bin close by to properly dispose of any garbage. It was also proposed to add picnic tables and benches at these locations to encourage people to enjoy the outdoors more often.

In the spring of 2019 these dreams became a reality with the purchase and installation of 6 garbage bins, 3 benches, and 11 picnic tables. The amount of people enjoying these spaces has gone up while the amount of litter has gone way down. The simple act of having a garbage bin in sight at every location has encouraged parents and students to use them rather than dropping their garbage on the ground and harming our Red Deer River Watershed.

We want to thank the Caring for Our Watershed sponsors for their contribution to this project. The amount of litter going into the river has gone way down due to the installation of garbage bins in front of our school.

School Yard Clean up

AERATION MODIFICATION

2017, CINCINNATI, OH, USA
Aeration Modification
Matthew Murphy of Oak Hills High School knew that he wanted his project to be both simplistic and effective, with the main focus to be his school’s bathrooms. Matthew’s high school building is older and hadn’t been renovated in a very long time, making the bathrooms a prime candidate for a water conservation project.

He found inspiration when he took a school field trip to the Ohio River with his AP Environmental Science class. There they discussed the issue of combined water sewer systems in the Ohio River Watershed; essentially when there is too much rain, the sewer system bypasses the water treatment plant and deposits a ton of pollution into the Ohio River. This outing helped to establish the primary goal of his project: reduce the total amount of water that Oak Hills puts into its combined sewer systems as a means to reduce the total waste put into the river during periods of heavy rain.

Matthew’s solution was to replace the faucet aerators in all the bathroom sinks around the school. An aerator is the part of the sink faucet where the water comes out. The old aerators in the school used 2.2 gallons of water per minute, equating to a total of 360,000 gallons of water over the course of 95 days. (2,650 people x 2 trips a day x 20 seconds x 2.2 GM x 95 days). The new aerators that he purchased for his school only used 0.5 gallons of water per minute, this in turn should only use 80,000 gallons of water over 95 days. (2,650 people x 2 trips a day x 20 seconds x 0.5 GM x 95 days)

This project not only has the ability to help the school conserve water, it also will allow the school to save roughly $2,000 every 95 days. In turn, he plans to propose using these dollar savings to hold a mini watershed project in his high school. Discussing water conservation and rewarding innovative thinking will help future classes of students create a more environmentally sustainable school. Matthew’s hope is that year after year, students continue the work to improve the school’s sustainability.

WEED-EX

2017, CINCINNATI, OHIO, USA

Claire Erny and Jacob Berry knew that residents in their hometown of Wyoming, Ohio yearned for a luscious and weed-free lawn. The dangers of trying to accomplish this goal can be serious and can contain a lot of chemicals and waste that may end up leaching into the waterways, affecting all aquatic life and drinking water. Jacob and Claire decided to come up with a recipe for an environmentally friendly and safe weed killer that is proven just as effective as other weed killers, but much more environmentally friendly, safer and a lot cheaper.

After looking at countless articles about natural weed killers, their teacher, Mr. Neimiller, informed them that he uses “vinegar and dawn dish soap” on his lawn at home, and it works wonders. To make a gallon of this weed killer, residents would need about one gallon of distilled white vinegar and two tablespoons of Dawn dish soap. Before deciding if they wanted to take on this project, Jacob and Claire needed try out this recipe for themselves. They soaked countless weeds with their homemade weed killer and approximately three hours later returned and the results were even better than expected.

The town of Wyoming has a smartphone app called ‘Next Door Wyoming’ people in the community can try to find babysitters, a cheap plumber, someone to walk their dog, pretty much anything. Jacob and Claire decided to make a post on Next Door Wyoming explaining their project and asking the citizens if they would like to try a bottle of the natural and homemade weed killer. Jacob and Claire expected to make about 10-15 bottles of weed killer, but received 40 requests in just 20 minutes. They quickly made extra bottles and dropped the weed killer off the next day and asked that residents email the results back to them.

Just one day after delivering the weed killer to all the residents, many emails came back with positive results and pictures. Not a single resident had a negative comment; some families even said they were going to stop using their old weed killer and start using the homemade version. Their favorite report came from a horticulturist from the Cincinnati gardens who said that her team was going to start using the homemade weed killer. They were able to book the Civic Center for late May (about a month after the final competition) and held an event to further educate the citizens on what a positive and major impact this has on our watershed, and only for $6.00.

Weed-Ex

HYDRATION STATION

2017, CINCINNATI, OH, USA

When faced with the challenge to improve her local watershed, Annie Smith thought of her school drinking water fountains. Her school is very old and while it has been remodeled several times, it seems several of the drinking fountains never got updated. So she developed a project she called the “Hydration Station.” It all started when she saw the enormous amounts of plastic water bottles being thrown away at her school. Her idea was to start the process of installing automatic water bottle refill stations around the school in order to reduce the number of plastic water bottles that Oak Hills High School throws away every single day.

Annie worked with the Caring For Our Watersheds staff, her mentors, teachers and Winnsupply company in Fairfield to acquire two water fountains to be installed in the school. Maintenance staff installed the first fountain (pictured below) in one of the main hallways within the school in order to maximize the usage of the fountain. After less than a week of being installed, the water fountain had already saved 395 water bottles, a number that will hopefully continue growing. That’s right, almost 400 bottles in just one week.

Annie graduated just after the CFW finals, but in the future she hopes to revisit the school and see how many water bottles have been saved. She hopes to take this newly collected data and propose that all the water fountains at Oak Hills High School be replaced with new water bottle filling stations. If this is successful, she plans on reaching out to the superintendent and proposing that all old water fountains in the district be replaced with new water bottle filling stations. She also hopes to work with the Oak Hills “Spirit Shop”, or book store, to get reusable water bottles with the Oak Hills logo on them, to be purchased and used by students and staff at the water fountains. The janitors had some issues with the ‘old’ plumbing, but they were able to build a frame to mount the new filling station. Persistence pays off.

SOAKING UP THE WATER, ONE TREE AT A TIME

2017, HAY LAKES, ALBERTA, CANADA
Tree

Dana Sych and Soren Skaret decided that to help improve their watershed, they would plant green ash trees in their school yard. After much research, the pair decided on Green Ash trees because they grow quickly, require little maintenance, and do well in wet areas but can also survive drought and cold winters- something important in this small Alberta town. They wanted to plant trees in a low spot of the school yard that often is too wet to play in, and becomes a mosquito breeding ground. They thought by planting trees the water could be absorbed, and the trees would have water to drink. Win, win!

The team also made the connection that by adding trees to their school yard, they would be directly helping to improve air quality. They included the younger grades of their school in the tree planting to help educate them about the importance of the environment and taking personal responsibility.

Dana and Soren hope that these trees will be part of their legacy at the school, soaking up the extra water, and providing shade and a wind block to students for years to come.