Canada

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Otis and Friends: “The Mystery of Missing Water”

2011 Ponoka, Alberta Canada
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Kaitlin, Katie, Vickie and Melissa became involved in the Caring for our Watersheds contest as a classroom project at St. Augustine School in Ponoka. Their idea was to create a fun and educational books series for students in grades 2-4 about how their actions impact the watershed and what they can do to help.

The book series is called “Otis and Friends Environmental Adventures” with this premier book titled “The Mystery of Missing Water”. In the story Otis the duck’s pond is drying up due to high levels of water consumption in the nearby town. Luckily a special little girl who likes to walk by the pond notices the low water and her and her family start making changes to their water use. The neighbours take notice of their new habits and soon everyone is conserving water, saving Otis and his friends.

The book also has a fact sheet about the Northern Pintail Duck, who Otis is based on. There is also a list of 8 easy actions that families can take to reduce their water consumption.otis-3

The girls visited all of the grade 2-4 classrooms at their school for book readings, and the students all really enjoyed the book. After receiving funds from Nutrien, Keyera and Grey Wooded Forage Association for printing the book, they held a book launch party at their local library. The book has been distributed to all of the Parkland Regional Libraries, as well as through school visits by the Battle River Watershed Alliance.

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St. James Global Leadership Peace Garden

2011 Calgary, Alberta Canada
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As part of the Grade Nine Global Leadership Program at St. James School, Veronica Skebo and Charlotte Hardwicke-Brown participated in Caring for our Watersheds. Their idea was to expand their school Peace Garden to incorporate a rain garden.

It took more than just two students to fulfill this project. There were twenty-four students and staff working together. The final project measured around 110 metres squared. The team choose native trees and shrubs such as, White Spruce, Pincherry, and Aspen trees, Common Juniper, Red Twig Dogwood, Yellow Twig and Dwarf Birch shrubs.

Veronica said, “The different types of native plants give a more environment friendly feel and give diversity to the entire garden.”st_james_peace_garden1-3

With the help from Nutrien, North Glenmore Park Community Association, St. James Parent Council and the Education Society, the team raised $5,600.

Veronica went on to add, “The purpose of the garden
was to create and promote awareness and education
on the effect of watersheds and how we can help protect them. We also created the garden to preserve our watersheds through the use of a rain garden concept. We took a lot of time to learn about this concept and make it into a real life plan. Now that I see the amount of rain we gather, I know the concept works well. We believe that the concepts we have put into making this garden work will help protect the watersheds and all of the organisms that live off of the watersheds. The peace garden was originally created so that students can learn outside about our ecosystems and environment and now with the expansion, the peace garden will be used much more with the different concepts that were incorporated.”

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Students from Vanscoy School Work Together to Implement Projects!

2010 Vanscoy, Saskatchewan, Canada
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Vanscoy School had 7 out of the top ten finishes in the grade 7-9 category of the Caring for our Watersheds competition. The finalist teams from Vanscoy School have decided to work together to implement as many of the projects as possible. Their project ideas include new taps for the school, green space development around their school, education and awareness activities and composting.

“This project has shown me that the students are aware of the environment around them and are willing and able to be champions for change. We, as adults, just have to listen to them.” said Ms. Amanda Schafhauser, a grade 7 and 8 teacher at the Vanscoy School.

The Eco Garden project was developed by Grade 8 student Brooke Van Damme, who said “My project was called the Eco Garden. I wanted to implement my idea because it would be a good way to save water and stop water pollution while making Vanscoy School a more attractive place to be. I hope it will help Vanscoy be more aware of our watershed and the effects we have on it.” The students are leaving a lasting legacy for their school for generations to come. June 22, 2010 the students from Ms. Schafhauser’s grade 7 and 8 classes prepared and planted their green space garden. The planted trees will work as a shelter belt, sheltering the roadway and parking lot from the build up of snow while the gathered snow will melt into the ground. In the fall, the students will work the area again to prepare it for the coming winter.

Three out of the 7 projects presented by the teams from Vanscoy included new taps for their school to help minimize their wastage of water. As a result of their research, the students decided to go with an automatic sensor taps. 14 taps were purchased and installed in all of the school washrooms during the summer break.

The total budget for the student’s project is over $18,000, more than $8,000 of which is being donated by the students as their time, the school division’s efforts, and Lakeshore Tree Farms. The rest of the funds are provided by the Nutrien Caring for our Watersheds Project.

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Youth Nature Club

2010 Lethbrige, Alberta, Canada
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Tyson Bohnert from Lethbridge was awarded $1000 to create an on-line Neighbourhood Stewards and Nature Club mentorship program. He performed live presentations, and used different mediums of interaction including website, workshops, videos, pictures, to inform about nature related facts and issues.
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Rain Barrels

2010 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada 

Kysha LaPlante and Dan-Elle Kramchynski from Mr. Kasun’s Grade 8 class at St. Edward School won first prize in the grade 7 to 9 category of the Caring for our Watersheds competition. The project plan developed by these two students was to decorate and supply rain barrels to participating schools in the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division. A total of 10 schools (plus their own school) were eager to participate in the project. The students worked together and managed to get the majority of the materials supplied in-kind from various suppliers, including the poly barrels themselves. As a result, the students only requested $150.00 from Nutrien to complete their project. Nutrien was delighted to present these students with the funds required.

Kysha and Dan-Elle did a wonderful job of decorating their rain barrel, encouraging other schools to decorate their barrels as well. Students from their school were involved with decorating the final projects.

Kysha and Dan-Elle took part in a presentation at their school commemorating Earth day on April 22, 2010. During this presentation, these two students presented their school with the $1000.00 awarded to the school because of their project.

 

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The Ripple Effect

2010 Calgary, Alberta, Canada


 Samantha Hans wanted to raise awareness of water challenges and planned a water conference for high school students.

A Water Conference for Youth by Youth was held on Wed. May 11, 2011. The day started with an introduction of UNA-Canada and The Ripple Effect project. The Calgary Current, the Youth Advocacy Group, presented to approximately 50 high school students and their teachers explaining what they do, why they do it, and why they enjoy their involvement in the project. The group of students was then split up into two groups to discuss the basics of water usage, conservation, Calgary’s Watershed and sustainability. After a quick snack the students were back to activities which included ‘water’ Family Feud, learning about the ‘water cost’ of daily items and an interactive guessing game where countries were compared based on their water usage.

Students designed their own water sustainability t-shirts, and participated in various other learning activities including a presentation from My World, My Choice followed by three speakers with a career spin on water issues. Students were exposed to government, NGO and corporate perspectives, offering them a broader sense of career opportunities than what they would find at a career fair. Speakers included a speaker from Alberta Wilderness Association, Nutrien, and the City of Calgary. The day was filled with engaging information and new perspectives on water sustainability that the students had never heard before. Positive feedback was received from both the students and teachers who attended the conference; The Youth Advocacy Group of Calgary Current was impressed with the student’s level of engagement and immensely enjoyed their mentoring role and experience.

 

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Reduction of Water Consumption in Homes

2010 Milk River, Alberta, Canada

Tierra Maggrah from Erle Rivers High School discuss the problem of the amount of water consumption in Canadian households; her solution achieved one of the top ranks in the 2010 Caring for our Watershed Grade 7- 9 division.

Tierra Maggrah concerned about how much water the average household uses in Canada; specifically the quantity used in her community and wanted to do something about it.

Tierra knows that most people consume water by using it to maintain a nice yard, so she proposes that
a rain barrel be placed at each home which would be used to water plants.

Her proposition of using rain barrels to obtain water as an alternative to regular tap water is a solution to reduce the consumption of water in the household.

Tierra’s implementation plan involves the purchase of 30 rain barrels, of which 3 were raffled off at the Community Stewardship Forum.

The remaining 27 rain barrels were sold at a subsidized cost at the community forum to off-set the implementation cost.

 

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Green is Great

2010 Milk River, Alberta, Canada

Sierra Harty, from Erle River High School, won first place at the 2010 Caring for Watershed (CFW)Grade 7-9 Division.
Sierra Harty noticed the deterioration of the riverbanks leading to the water at popular canoe entry sites along the Milk River. After consulting with the County, she determined that a path made up of crushed gravel and highlighted by signs would direct the flow of recreationists to stay on the path.

The path highlighted by signs directed the flow of traffic in and out of the river at two high traffic spots: Poverty Rock and Coffin Bridge. By keeping the recreationists stay on the path, it helps minimize the deterioration of the river banks, which leads to the popular canoe entry sites along the Milk River.

She created three trail signs, and worked with the County of Warner and MRWCC to develop key messages on the trail signs. Sierra also worked on the trail sign site logistics for relevant placements on the path.