2017, EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA
Simran Panesar takes tree planting seriously. Since she started in the Caring for our Watersheds contest in grade 8, Simran found new and exciting ways to plant trees, improve biodiversity, and educate youth about their watershed.
In this year’s project, Simran had moved onto high school, but wanted to engage grade 6 students (who have a science unit on trees and forests) students from her junior high school to come get involved. Her implementation took 4 parts:
Part 1: Presentation and Pizza. Grade 6 students from A. Blair McPherson school arrived to W.P. Wagner School where they listened to Simran’s presentation about the event. They were then treated to a pizza party lunch!
Part 2: Art Project: The school’s art teacher helped lead an environmental art project for the grade sixes. They put leaf impressions into clay and made little slabs. These slabs will be fired in a kiln and then compiled into a huge environmental display. This display will be a “contemplation project” and hung up at Wagner.
Part 3: Biodiversity Game. The grade 6 students learned about the importance of biodiversity in the watershed by a game which teaches how different bird beaks adaptations allow them to eat different foods.
Part 4: The final step was the actual tree planting. 45 native trees and shrubs (including Saskatoon, Lodgepole Pine, and Red Osier Dogwood) were planted in the schools yard.
Simran was able to make space for biodiversity at her new school while engaging and educating youth.
“I just wanted to thank you for inspiring me to make a positive difference in our world! You have inspired me since the day you came to our school when I was in grade 8 to talk about Caring for Our Watersheds and the experiences I’ve gained from this competition are priceless”. -Simran