Canada

Recycling Basketball

2017, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Recycling basketball student action

Rayna Premack, a grade seven student at Holy Cross School, wanted to make recycling more fun for her fellow students, so she came up with the idea to place basketball hoops over the recycling bins to encourage students to use them! Making recycling more fun can be a great way to get everyone involved.

“As we increase our recycling, we are downsizing the pollution across the world… Recycling in a fun way supports children and adults in making them realize that it is good for the environment.”

Losing Tides – A Watershed Awareness Dance Show

2017, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Hunter Watson and Alyssa Lee from Westwood Collegiate came up with one of the most unique projects seen to date. They chose to look at Watershed Awareness through Dance with spectacular evening including dance, watershed information booths, and guest speakers from watershed community partners. Losing Tides Watershed Awareness Show Student Project Manitoba

“As students who are very involved in the arts in school and around the community, immediately we were reminded of how often we are told about how much dance can have an impact on people. That thought gave us the idea to create a dance show with every dance revolving around water and our watersheds. The damages we have done to it, the beauty it has, and how important it is to preserve it.

Each dance will have images projected on the screen that will help to enhance the dance and its losing tides watershed awareness show manitoba meaning. Some dances will deal with the pollution side to our effect on our watersheds, some will focus on how our watersheds could and should look like all reflecting behind the dancer.

Seeing the issues and solutions through dance, pictures and speakers that can range from high school students to well-known organizations will surely leave an impact on the audience. This is something that has never been done before but we are confident we can do this right.”

This event attracted over 200 participants and ended with a well-deserved standing ovation standing ovation.

Eco-Friendly Dry Erase Markers

international_dry-erase-markers In researching her Caring for our Watersheds project, Katelyn discovered a starting fact about her school’s use of dry erase whiteboard markers; “My school goes through approximately 1570 markers within a 10 month period.” That’s 1570 markers going in the trash each year. Given that these markers “are plastic, toxic, and non-recyclable” Katelyn saw the need to make a change to “prevent and lower the amount of chemicals making their way into the Lake Winnipeg watershed.”

Crayola Colour Cycle!

2016, Trenton, Ontario, Canada

Marker Recycling Student Action Project Ontario

In 2016, a student named Melissa from Murray Centennial Public School proposed an idea of the “Crayola Colour Cycle” that will help to improve the waste management at her school. Melissa will educate the school on her project before she begins. She will also be holding a colouring contest for primary grades the winner gets a Crayola t-shirt, and handing out stickers to the other classes that say “I recycle” on them.

She did the“Crayola Colour Cycle” project throughout her school where she got all the students and staff to bring in markers, pens and highlighters that they have at school or at home. Once they brought them in they would be collected, then later shipped back to Crayola where they will be recycled properly through a company called JBI. They specialize in recycling dense plastics. This project was implemented in November 2016, with the help of her school.

This project is going to help reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfills as well as the amount of energy needed to make brand new products for the future.

Revitalizing Rice Lake

2016, Alderville, Ontario Canada

In 2016, Gezhii, a grade eight student at Roseneath Centennial Public School proposed the idea to revitalize a creek, placing 2^nd overall. The creek is located in Roseneath Ontario. Sandercock Creek that is in a decline, due to the agricultural fields that have a lot of nutrient runoff, and negatively impact the health of the creek, which then flows directly into Rice Lake.

Revitalizing Rice Lake Student Action Ontario

Gezhii suggested the idea of having volunteers come out for a day to help plant different native trees and herbaceous plants on either side of the shoreline in order to help rejuvenate the creek. These plants along the sides of the creek are key to the health of critters that call this water home. As a result planting this shoreline buffer will help to decrease erosion and aid in filtering water.

Implementation has begun in 2018, a small group of grade six and seven’s from Roseneath Centennial Public School came to participate in a planting day on June 7, 2018. These students planted eighty-five trees and herbaceous plants along the shoreline of the creek.

Gezhii hopes that revitalizing this portion of the Sandercock creek will do a small part in improving aquatic life and increase water quality.

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.