Canada

Lacombe Educational Aquaponics Food System (LEAFS)

2014 Lacombe, Alberta, Canada

EcoVision is an environmental-based club for students at Lacombe Composite School. EcoVision has built and runs a greenhouse growing fresh herbs and vegetables in a geodesic dome on the school’s property. A sub-committee of this group is called LEAFS- Lacombe Aquaponics Foods System. LEAFS entered the 2014 CFW Contest with its goal is to build an efficient and sustainable aquaponics system in the greenhouse. The system benefits the Battle River watershed by raising awareness about watershed issues, promoting community involvement, and increases the schools ability to grow their own healthy food. The water used in the aquaponics system will be re-used to water the plants in the greenhouse.

LEAFS will raise tilapia and vegetables for their cafeteria and have a license to sell surplus items to the greater community. The LEAFS system will lower the schools ecological footprint by growing their own food and limiting greenhouse gas emissions from transport, and recycling waste water. The school will also benefit from enhanced educational opportunities and collaboration with community members. Lacombe Composite High School will be one of the first schools in Canada to have a running Aquaponics program that supplies its cafeteria with fresh fish and vegetables.

More information can be found on the EcoVison website: www.lchsecovision.weebly.com

International Rain Barrel Giveaway

image1-2 Rain barrels are designed to collect water, but one distinctive rain barrel designed by students at Daysland School in central Alberta is garnering just as much attention as it is water.

Butterflies, toads, dragonflies and other flora and fauna help depict a healthy watershed on a rain barrel designed by 20 students from grades five to 12 at Daysland School. It also helped the classroom win $1,000 through an international rain barrel giveaway and art contest sponsored by Nutrien’s Caring for our Watersheds (“CFW”) program.

Save the Stinkin’ Slough

2013 Crystal City, Manitoba, Canada

Austin Hudson from Thomas Greenway Middle School was frustrated with people’s lack of knowledge regarding the importance of keeping our watersheds healthy. more specifically, the fact sloughs and other wetlands were being drained on farmer’s fields when they provide such benefit was something wanted to talk about. As his family relies on farming, he could understand the drive to maximize production, but at what cost?

?My solution to this seemly huge issue is education. I will make a wetland diorama and a PowerPoint, called “Save the Stinkin’ Slough.” These will be sent to local schools to tell the kids about how important wetlands are to a watershed. once the kids have seen the presentation they will be given a small test or feedback sheet to show what they have learned. By doing this you can educate young kids who will tell their parents about the usefulness of wetlands. Hopefully the older generation will start thinking, hey those useless pieces of land are actually useful just the way they are! Then those adults will tell other adults. So by educating young people we can maybe save some of the wetlands in our watershed. it wouldn’t take much to do this idea and I think this project will work by educating people on this serious problem and helping them know how to fix it.”

Austin did develop his PowerPoint and thanks to a $1500 contribution from Nutrien also purchased an “Enviroscape” watershed model which will be circulated throughout his and neighboring community school to help spread the word.

He says that the diorama is “very cool and way better than I expected, all the kids in the school were so excited to see it; they all wanted a demonstration.” This was a bit scary for Austin but when it was over he said “I’m glad I did it, Tabitha was a huge help and I learned lots from the other presentations.? Thanks again for this program and providing this experience to so many kids!

Rain Garden Brochures

2013 Virden, Manitoba, Canada

Emma Jankovics lives in the Upper Assiniboine River Conservation District which is 4208 square miles and has a population of about 6500 people. The district is located in prairie area where the main sources of water are from rivers, lakes and rain water.

As her contribution to our water system “which sustains all living things,” she proposed a way to better sustain it.

“Water is being filled with the runoff from rain water, which along its path collects various pollutants. All of these pollutants end up in the water we swim in, and shower with, and drink. Which means extra work needs to be done to make the water safe and clean. The runoff also causes erosion which can lead to more major flooding. My idea is a small step in the right direction that can help the environment and the local people.

I want to improve the watershed I live in by producing informational brochures educating the community on the benefits of a rain garden to the watershed, and to their homes.”

“Compost!”

2013 Hamiota, Manitoba, Canada

Gage, Brady, and Cody, students at Hamiota Collegiate, discovered that most of what’s in their school garbage can actually be composted.

These students proposed purchasing an outdoor composter for their school, noting that education is an important part of the process; a school-wide promotion plan was part of their proposal. “This way if the students know all of the things that would normally go into the garbage at the school now they would be composted and put back in to the environment.” The environmental benefits of composting are numerous, but for these students reducing garbage is key:”this would help the environment because the items would decompose faster n the compost than they would in the landfills.”

Thanks to contribution from Nutrien, Hamiota Collegiate now has an outdoor composter and a school-wide compost program! along with the compost program they have decided that they want to plant and maintain a garden on school property throughout the summer months and into the fall so they can benefit from the nutrient rich composted material.

Project Bottle (2012)

2013 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Dag Sinclair and Jason Quinn saw an opportunity for their school to use less plastic bottles. They proposed that all 700 students at their school receive a re-usable metal water bottle. These water bottles were a perfect complement to the school’s new spigot-style water fountains that another student won for their school two years ago.

Dag and Jason shared the following water bottle statistics, from the website Green Upgrader: “Plastic water bottles take over 700 years to begin composting; 90 of the cost of a bottled water is the bottle itself; 80% of plastic water bottles are not recycled; 38,000,000 plastic bottles go to the dump per year in America from bottled water; 24,000,000 gallons of oil are needed to produce 1,000,000 plastic bottles; the average American consumes 167 bottles of water a year.” With that in mind, they felt it was important to “use personal metal water bottles that can be refilled and reused for long periods of time to reduce the use of plastic water bottles and reduce the effects of plastic water bottles and their contents on people and the environment.”

Thanks to a contribution from Nutrien, the school was able to provide a re-usable water bottle for every student. even better, Dag and Jason were able to talk to their principal to make sure that next year’s new grade nine students will receive a water bottle too!

“The goal is to provide the students with metal water bottles that will be paid for from the money granted from the contest this year and the following years in the students fees.”

Pick Up the Poo!

2013 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Benjamin Gresty and Jaxon Lalonde are enrolled in the Eco-Justice environmental and adventure program at St. Edward School. Their proposal for the Caring for our Watersheds competition looked at the problems to the river and surrounding area caused by the failure of people to pick up after their pets. Chances are, if you are a dog owner, you have done the dirty deed of not cleaning up after your dog once or twice. Many people think this is not a big deal. Some even feel that dog waste can act as another kind of fertilizer. This is not the case! When dog waste washes into our local water ways it has negative effects for our South Saskatchewan River Watershed.

When dog owners don’t clean up their dog’s poop, it Student photo - pick up the poo student action project can leach into soil and with it, harmful disease causing micro-organisms like round worms, E. Coli and Giardia that can live in dog feces. This puts children who play outside and adults who garden at risk of these infectious organisms. If dog waste is washed into the storm drains it ends up in lakes, rivers, streams or marine water. People can accidentally swallow its bacteria and other disease-causing organisms while swimming or playing in the water. It can even contaminate ground water!

Dog feces contains nutrients like phosphates and nitrogen that encourage the growth of algae and aquatic plants and is also known to carry terrible diseases such as Whipworm, Hookworm, Tapeworm, Parvovirus, Beaver Fever, Salmonella, and E.coli. Said nutrients and pollutants have caused a major algae growth and pollution problem in Lake Winnipeg, giving it the title of 2013’s most threatened lake.

Jaxon and Benjamin decided to clean up dog feces in a local park and hand out bags to dog owners to raise awareness about how dog poop can affect our watershed

To further spread the information about the problems of dog waste, the students started a “poopagenda” poster campaign in off-leash parks, at bus stops and on lampposts. They have also started working with the City of Saskatoon to have permanent signs installed to educate the public about the potential harm caused by unscooped waste. Picking up the (dog) poo is one small and simple step to a much cleaner watershed!

Kickstart Change

2013 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada Student Class photo student action prject kickstart change

Alana Krug-McLeod from Aden Bowman Collegiate in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, proposed the idea of using Kicksleds to help protect the Saskatchewan River Basin by encouraging a change in attitudes towards transportation. “Kickstart Change” aims to popularize a healthy, sustainable, versatile, alternative transportation mode (kicksledding) while promoting winter activities and building useful skills amongst youth. Kicksleds take their inspiration from various places: dogsleds have traditionally been used in northern regions of the world, and even penguins from the south that waddle and then glide on their bellies.

The three phase plan involved building kicksleds, organizing a winter festival, and establishing sustainable transportation infrastructure. The first phase of this project ran from September to December 2013 and involved introducing the concept of the Kicksleds to the Aden Bowman Collegiate industrial arts class who then became involved with the design and building of the kicksleds. These students gathered outdated and damaged skis, reusable wood and metal to use in constructing the kicksleds. The Aden Bowman Collegiate Eco Club awarded donated prizes for the most innovative, efficient, compact, and eco-friendly kicksleds designed and produced by the students.

Alana then approached the ScienceTrek class at Montgomery School as a partner on this project. The ScienceTrek Program is an accelerated science program that combines outdoor activities with intellectual and social awareness-building. ScienceTrek partners include Alana Krug-MacLeod from Aden Bowman Collegiate Institute, who initiated the project, and WeShare, who helped fund the project. After attending the EF Global Student Leaders Summit: Environmental Conference in Costa Kickstart Change Students pushing sled Rica in April 2013, Alana received an EF Student Leaders Summit Prize, which included a grant from WeShare. This grant from WeShare was used to fund the project. Many other unofficial partners (parents, community members, teachers and administrators) worked behind the scenes and alongside the students to make this project a success.

The attached pictures showcase the various styles of kicksleds that were built by the ScienceTrek and Aden Bowman Collegiate industrial arts students as well as pictures of the students using the kicksled outside for recreational purposes. Montgomery School, with Alana’s help, put on a winter festival where the kicksleds were unveiled. Interestingly enough, some of the students that participated in Alana’s project have now entered the 2014 CFW competition and have placed in the top ten finalist groups for this year’s competition.

Low Flush Toilets

2013 Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Torri Kondics, from St. James School in Calgary, Alberta was concerned about water consumption in her school. Torri performed research on the amount of water used by the school, and found that the school used thousands of liters of water a day!

To combat this problem, Torri decided to have two dual-flush toilets installed in St. James School. This resulted in a total savings of almost 1500 L of water per day. Torri also had timers installed on the urinals in the boys’ washroom. These timers decreased the urinal flush rate, resulting in even greater water savings for her school.

Through Torri’s efforts aimed at the decrease of water consumption at St. James School, she has left a legacy for future staff and students, all of whom will benefit from the reduction in water use. Her project will serve as a reminder to future students and staff that every drop does indeed count!

Automatic Taps

2013 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Tory Okemow and Dwight Kennedy noticed that their school used a lot of water as a result of taps left carelessly on in the bathrooms. They proposed that automatic taps would use less water and would be cleaner, safer, and more environmentally friendly than regular taps.

These students also live on school residence, and noted even more wasted water: “the Student Lodge does waste a lot of water all year round with students leaving the water on when brushing teeth.” The benefits of automatic taps include being “easy to operate; stopping the spread of germs and bacteria; preventing water overflow; preventing scalding; and saving water and money.”

An automatic tap was installed in one of the bathrooms at Southeast Collegiate, thanks to Nutrien. The students hope to monitor the difference between the automatic tap and regular taps at the school to demonstrate the need to change all of the taps in the school and at the residence.