USA

Canyon Creek Trail Clean-Up

2019, Auburn, California, USA

MET Sacramento High School student Faith Smitham was concerned with all the trash she saw along one of the most popular trails in the Auburn State Recreation Area, the Canyon Creek Trail. For her Caring for Our Watersheds project, Faith organized a clean-up of the trail and creek area, including the trailhead and parking area, where much trash is found.

On Saturday, May 11, Faith and her small group of volunteers spend around 4 hours cleaning up the trail, and talking to other visitors about her project.

garbage clean up

As a result, several hikers actually joined in their clean-up efforts, contributing to the success of the day! Faith also gathered data on the different types of trash they collected (plastic bottles were the most numerous) and planned to share this with park rangers, in case it may inform future signage, management, and the prevention of littering and pollution in this beautiful area.

Watershed Science Trip

2019, Sacramento, California, USA

Watershed Science Trip Student Photo

MET Sacramento student Simon Downes-Toney knows how a field trip can solidify and enhance classroom learning about watershed issues and also get students excited about science. As this was one of the largest snow-years on record, it presented an excellent opportunity to learn about the snowpack that is critical to California’s water supply.

Measuring snow depth and density at levels in the snowpit

Simon organized a trip to Claire Tappan Lodge, where students measured snow temperature and density at different levels within the snowpack, snow purity at different field locations, and graphed and analyzed their data. Simon’s proposal and funding from Nutrien allowed for more students to attend the trip and learn about how scientists track, study, and predict water supply with this critical resource.

Building a Compost Bench

2019, Sacramento, California, USA

As a student at The MET Sacramento High School, Shamar Russell spends part of his week at an internship in the community. Shamar interns at the Creative Connections Arts Academy (CCAA), where two needs he saw in the garden area sparked an idea for his Caring for Our Watersheds project.

Shamar wanted to teach the children of CCAA about composting, but there was not a good space to build a 3-section compost bin. There was also a need for seating for a teaching space in the garden area.

compost bench

Shamar decided on a project that would fulfill both needs: a compost bench! While the bench has a smaller capacity for composting garden waste, it still can be used as a focal point to teach about composting to the students. It also serves as a place where students can sit for a lesson in the garden or where students and teachers can rest after planting, weeding, or harvesting.

The current design allows for a potential worm bin, or the bottom can be removed if ground contact is desired for more traditional composting. Signage will be included to point out this unique new feature of the garden space at CCAA. Caring for Our Watersheds funding helped Shamar purchase lumber and hardware to build the bench.

Vermicomposting

2019, Sacramento, California, USA

Kevin Alvarez-Vazquez, a student at the MET Sacramento, was concerned about the amount of food waste from his school that ends up in landfills. Food waste that decomposes in landfills releases methane, a greenhouse gas that is more potent than carbon dioxide. Kevin knew that traditional outdoor composting can convert food waste into nutrient rich soil, but he wanted to demonstrate an alternative that can be done indoors or outdoors, vermicomposting.

Kevin built a worm bin with special adjustments for indoor use, as he did not want extremities of weather to cause worms to die and needed maintenance to be an easy, regular part of the school day.

Kevin plans to educate advisory groups at his school and to create a flyer, with a “how to” diagram and materials list on one side and information about the benefits of vermicomposting on the other. Caring for Our Watersheds funding helped purchase materials and worms for the bin.

A Vertical Garden for Pollinators

2019, Sacramento, California, USA

MET Sacramento student Isa Sheikh is an officer and active member of the Garden club. As such, he is always looking for ways to improve and extend the garden as well as expand its environmental benefit. As most of the raised beds in the garden area are used to produce vegetables and/ or fruit, Isa wanted to find space to add a pollinator garden, which would attract native pollinators and provide nectar sources for them during other parts of the year.

vertical pollinator garden Isa identified some narrow spaces on campus that were suitable and got approval to plant, but realized he could most efficiently use the space by adding a vertical element to his pollinator garden. By trellising some common pollinator friendly plants, he not only provided habitat, but also added to the aesthetics of his school campus—and hopefully will increase the productivity of the garden as well!

Engaging Students in Recycling Through Art

2019, Sacramento, California, USA

When MET Sacramento student Naam-Thaan (Angel) Ketphanh noticed that trash cans in each of her classes were filled with both trash and many recyclable items such as plastic bottles and aluminum cans, she realized her school did not have an effective recycling program. Angel was determined to make a change and came up with a plan to improve recycling at school.

Angel first purchased blue recycling bins for each advisory classroom. Knowing that just placing the bin in class would not necessarily increase awareness and improve recycling habits, Angel decided to engage students with an art contest. Students from each advisory would decorate bins using colored sharpie pens and the winning advisory would get a pizza party. Her contest would bring awareness to the new bins and Angel could encourage use through reminding students what they could and should recycle. Angel also plans on collecting money for the recyclable items at a recycling center, which would supplement advisory budgets for special student events.

Water Filtration on Campus

2019, Sacramento, California, USA

Alayne Voss and Rachel Lipetti, students at George Washington Carver School of Arts and Sciences, were concerned about the amount of plastic waste on campus, especially that of single- use plastic water bottles. Their original proposal called for a hydration station to be installed in the lobby by the office at school.

When they were unable to get approval from the district for that location, they proposed a new plan so students could have access to filtered water to fill their reusable water bottles. Alayne and Rachel installed filters on faucets in each of the science classes at school, which are equipped with sinks. Even though they hit a roadblock with their original plan, during the implementation of their project, they realized that having several locations would actually serve the student body better. Funding from Caring for Our Watersheds helped to purchase the filtration systems and replacement filters for the units

Reducing Plastic Waste at School

2019, Sacramento, California, USA

Rachel Freidberg and Barcelona Boyd, students of George Washington Carver High School, knew they wanted to focus on reducing single-use plastic waste for their Caring for Our Watersheds project. Besides the ubiquitous plastic water bottles, another source of plastic waste was coming from the school cafeteria: the spork packet. When looking closer at spork packet use, they found that many of students that took a spork packet did so only because they needed the napkin inside! Thus, there was plastic waste created without it even being used! They knew there was a better way.

Rachel and Barcelona wanted to replace the plastic utensils with reusable silverware and make separate napkins available to students. A main challenge to their proposed project was the fact that the school did not have a dishwasher to sanitize the silverware. However, they did not let this stop them! They developed a pilot project, using Dept. of Health standards and guidelines and rotating student volunteers to wash and sanitize the silverware generated at lunchtime at their relatively small school. Rachel and Barcelona’s well-planned project and their persistence in making a difference even within the limits of school’s infrastructure and equipment helped them take fifth in the Caring for Our Watersheds Finals.

Improving Recycling at School

2019, Sacramento, California, USA

Suliana Tagitau, Emily Valtierra, and Tylique Watkins wanted to improve recycling at their school. They recognized that while there were bins in some classrooms, they were not universally recognized as recycling bins and hardly used. They also noticed that there were no bins where they were needed most, like in the courtyard area where most students ate lunch.

old bins in some classrooms

These George Washington Carver High School students submitted a proposal to buy larger classic blue bins for the lunch area, which they would decorate to attract attention and promote use. They would then use the extra paint to refurbish some of the old bins in the classrooms, to make them easily recognizable. Finally, classic blue bins would be purchased for classrooms without any existing bins.

The group also plans to attach a small laminated sheet to each bin reminding students and teachers what can and can’t be recycled. Caring for Our Watersheds funds helped purchase the bins and paint for the project.

Pollinator Garden

2019, Sacramento, California, USA

When Anahi Orozco, Giselle Pantoja, and Ryan Mengell, students at George Washington Carver High School, starting researching topics for their Caring for Our Watersheds project, they learned a lot about the importance of pollinators in agriculture and that their numbers have been rapidly decreasing. Learning about issues like Colony Collapse Disorder (in honeybees) as well as habitat loss inspired them to help support bee populations, including many species of native bees that can also serve as successful pollinators.

They planted a pollinator garden on campus with several different species that would provide nectar sources throughout the year and installed a bee nesting box that would provide nest sites for different sizes and species of many California native bees.

Establishing this garden will also benefit the pollination in the school’s nearby garden, and serve as a educational component of garden class. Caring for Our Watersheds funding helped purchase plants, soil, and the nest box for their “Bee Friendly” garden.