Bluebird Trail

2024, Ashburn, VA, USA

Farmwell 7^th graders aimed to protect wildlife by creating a “bluebird trail”. The school had 4 bluebird houses and needed one more for it to officially be a trail. The 7^th graders earned the grants for the 5^th bluebird house and predator guards/raccoon baffles for all five bluebird houses. As anticipated, all bird houses were occupied by three different bird species – tree swallows, chickadees, and eastern bluebirds – all of them native to Virginia. Students have learned the skills required to create a welcomed change in the community and are excited to have made a home for birds in the years to come.

SDGs: 13: Climate Action, 14: Life on Land, 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

Targets: 6.4, 15.3, 13.1

Blair Learning Garden, Native Plant Raised Garden

2024, Norfolk, VA, USA

Blair Middle Schoolers in Norfolk, Virginia noticed that habitat loss in their community due to major flooding issues. The students partnered with Master Gardeners, Elizabeth River Project and more to create a raised garden bed in front of the school to combat these problems.

The students faced challenges along the way but are pleased with the outcome. They all got a taste of the satisfaction that comes from doing something beneficial for the community and will continue to seek opportunities to do more.

SDG’s: 13: Climate action, 14: Life Below Water, 15: Life on Land

Targets: 14.1

Save the Inner Harbour, Save Chesapeake Bay

2024, Baltimore, MD, USA

The students of Baltimore Christian Academy had an important question about the water quality of the Inner harbor water. After Analyzing the data that they collected, they found it to be polluted. To address this issue, they decided to take civic action. They wrote to Baltimore City council woman, Phylicia Porter, informing her of their findings and seeking her input on how to reduce or eliminate pollution in the inner Harbour.

Students learned to use their voice to advocate for environmental issues, which will aid them in a lifetime of protecting our watershed.

SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation.

Target 12.5

Students Improve Recycling Policy at High School

2023, Lewistown, PA, USA

Students in the Environmental Science classes and Science club at Mifflin County High School worked together to change their school’s recycling policies. Students in Ecology classes began the process by conducting inventories about plastic and consumption habits in their daily lives.They voted and successfully advocated to their school administration to add recycling bins throughout the school and increase signage for proper recycling. They also led a station at a local EcoDay festival as well to communicate their policy change beyond their school.

This student-led policy change will leave a legacy of taking action to improve the watershed.

Sdg: 6: Clean water and Sanitation.

Targets 6.A, 6.3

Hydroponics

2023, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
vegetables growing under lights indoors
Kobe, Oliver, David, and Meaghan are from St. Augustine School in Saskatoon. Their project focused on hydroponic gardening. They wanted to show the benefits of growing your food instead of buying it from stores. With their hydroponics, they have been able to grow tomatoes, lettuce, and strawberries. They used their plants to support garden boxes at their school. They have even produced a few yields of fruit and vegetables that St. Augustine students were able to make into a delicious meal. Kobe, Oliver, David, and Meaghan hope that people will “Go Green” with an eco-garden.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Goal 2- No Hunger
Goal 12- Responsible Consumption and Production

vegetable salad with lettuce oranges strawberries

Brilliant Bats

2022, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
bat house outside
Did you know that one little brown bat can eat 1000 insects a night? To reduce the number of pesticides used in Saskatoon, Evan from Montgomery School decided to build houses for bats. He has installed ten bat houses across the city and countryside. Evan also partnered with Meewasin Valley Authority and added QR Codes on signs to help educate the public about bats and other flora and fauna in Meewasin Valley. They also had a public bat installation event at a local park. Thanks to Evan, 300 bats have brand new homes in the City of Saskatoon.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Goal 15- Life on Land
Goal 13- Climate Action

Students putting bat house together outside Student and man using table saw for bat house

outdoor signage for bat house

Vapes of Wrath

2023, Ohio, USA
Vape and E-Cigarette disposal bin
Vapes of Wrath was a project done by Cullen and Ethan that was focused on fixing the problems that vaping creates for health and the environment.

As high school students, they found evidence of vaping as an issue from firsthand experience. Many of their classmates were engaging in the behavior and it was an obvious issue. After doing research, they too realized that vaping was an environmental concern,
considering discarded e-cigarettes are hazardous waste and can contaminate local watersheds and ecosystems. E-cigarettes contain toxic chemicals and lithium batteries which are considered toxic and hazardous waste and pollute water systems and soil. They wanted to address this issue first on a local level, in their communities. They implemented a two-fold program, including an educational and collection component. First, they educated people about the health issues and lesser-known environmental issues associated with vaping. They accomplished this through posters and through their website and referred to the FDA, NIH, and Truth Initiative.
Then they established several vape collection containers, locking sharp containers, and placed them in strategic and popular places in their community. This was a cost effective method that could be easily replicated throughout the state and nation. There are no public vaping disposal services available, so they were filling a complete void. Their project addressed several sustainable development goals as set forth by the United Nations: Good Health and Well-Being, Responsible Consumption and Production, and Climate Action.

This project was interesting for them because it was an opportunity to tackle something that is not often talked about. Because of the stigma that surrounds vaping, it is a topic that is often ignored. But Cullen and Ethan believe that ignoring a problem will only make it worse and that something needs to be done to solve the impacts of vaping.

Students standing beside disposal bins

Students standing beside disposal bins and signs

The Impact of Styrofoam

2023, Loveland, Ohio, USA
Sign of the impacts of styrofoam
“The Impact of Styrofoam” was created by students, Olivia, Wyatt, Sophia, and Jake, at Loveland High School. The project focuses on the switch from
styrofoam lunch trays to all paper products in the school’s cafeteria as well as the process of educating the students and staff on the harmful effects of styrofoam.

Styrofoam is estimated to take over 500 years to decompose and is known to leach chemicals into the environment, while on the other hand, paper only takes 2-6 weeks to fully decompose. While the paper trays have a much better impact on the environment, their project illuminated some interesting problems when used in a cafeteria setting. For example, on days where the
cafeteria serves spaghetti, the sauce tends to seep into the material and make the meal less appealing for the student; the styrofoam does not have this behavior. The styrofoam trays,
however, are less sturdy than the paper trays. This switch, while there are pros and cons to both sides, is important for the sake of the Little Miami River Watershed.

Their biggest takeaway from doing this project was the amount of thought and consideration that goes into making decisions, such as, the kind of tray students’ bought lunches come on.

Sustainable Development Goals this project hits:

6.3: By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally.

12.6: Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to
adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle.

14.1: By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution.

Caring for our watersheds logo on food freezer Paper packaging replacing styrofoam

Fast Fashion

2023, Ohio, USA
Clothes drive sign

Margot, Callie, and Hollis focused on the negative impacts that are caused by fast fashion. The problem was identified in their watershed, with the vast environmental impact that fast fashion poses. Fast fashion produces extensive air and water pollution, with extremely negative environmental impacts. Margot, Callie, and Hollis knew this was something that needed to be fixed, and fast.

The group narrowed their focus by reviewing the UN’s Sustainable development goals. Goal 11, to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable, with a focus on waste management and implementation. Goal 12, to ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns with a focus on reducing waste generation, procurement, and information. Their final goal was Goal 13 to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts specifically to improve education and awareness.
Donate here sign with bags of clothes in front of it bag in box
In order to combat this problem they decided to organize a clothing drive through their school. Their two-day event consisted of a donation day on Saturday and a thrift event hosted on Sunday. Over 1,050 items of clothing were donated on Saturday and for every item donated participants received 1 credit to shop with the next day. In order to increase turnout, they allowed community members to donate canned goods and toiletries as another opportunity to receive credits.

There was great turnout on Sunday with people coming from all over Wyoming and surrounding communities. The bathrooms were open, so that way everyone had the option to try on each item before purchasing. This lowered the chance that items would immediately be taken to places like goodwill following the drive. Majority of the donations received were taken, but they then took the few remaining items, as well as the donated canned goods and toiletries to Matthew 25 Ministries. This made the impact of their drive global, with Matthew 25 shipping the donations to countries in need.

With such a successful drive, the group received countless compliments from community members. Several were shocked and impressed that they collected so many donation items in only one day. Others requested that the project continues down the line. With all of the positive feedback, Margot, Callie and Hollis decided to implement the project as a yearly tradition. They took it up with Project Lead, a volunteer group at their school. Project lead agreed to host the drive every year, meaning that the impact of the drive can continue for years to come.
Students sorting clothes into categories on tables
With fast fashion being such a prevalent issue resulting from the rise of social media, the trend of fast fashion is not projected to slow down any time soon. The group hung up posters at the drive with several links of sustainable online businesses to shop at, as well as nearby environmentally friendly thrift stores. The ability of this drive to start a cycle of clean shopping will be increasingly beneficial for the community of Wyoming, Ohio as well as surrounding communities. A major takeaway from the experience that Margot, Callie, and Hollis got was how such a small project can end up making such a big impact. Wyoming is a very small community, but they were able to make a global impact that will continue to serve as a way to help the environment for as long as the drive continues. It makes them wonder, if such a tight knit small community can make such a drastic impact, what even bigger impact can the surrounding big communities do?

On one of the final days in class before summer break, the students gave a presentation to their class using the same slideshow used to present at the Ohio Caring for Our Watersheds competition where they placed 3rd in the state.

Community-Based Clean-Up Station in Polluted Parks

2023, Loveland, Ohio, USA
trash pickup station outside
Zachary and Ryan are both students at Loveland High School working to protect the Little Miami Watershed. For their project they conceptualized, planned, built, and installed 3 trash pickup stations at key locations of popular local parks with a lot of trash pollution. At these stations, members of the local community who spend time at the park will grab a container from inside as they enter, fill it with trash as they walk around the parks, and throw the bag away as they are leaving to remove this trash from the park on a regular basis. Additionally, by using repurposed coffee bags that would have otherwise been thrown out by local coffee shops as these containers, the group was able to simultaneously reduce the trash in their watershed and give these non-recyclable items another chance. Through the commitment of their school’s Green Team to maintain the project by checking in on the boxes and resupplying them with coffee bags as they are used up, even as the students move forward, the project will
continue serving their community far into the future.

The project addressed sustainable development targets 6.3 to “improve water quality by reducing pollution”, 14.1 to “prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds”, and 15.1 to “ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems” by removing trash (and the dangerous toxins/microplastics associated with it) from the park that otherwise would pose a threat to the water quality, underwater life, and terrestrial life both in the park itself and downstream. Additionally, their project involved the “participation of local communities” as stated in target 6B. Every bit of trash removed by those attending the park, according to the students, is a small but important step towards reaching these development goals, and inspiring others to take the similar steps in their own backyard.

Throughout the last 6 months, Zachary and Ryan took the opportunity to help their watershed and created a solution that is simple, easy to maintain, and most importantly, effective. By coming up with a strong plan before moving forward, receiving the necessary support and permission from their local government for the project was not an issue. They learned about protecting our environment and its importance, developing and proposing realistic solutions, and collaborating with one’s own community to help work toward a future for everyone.

trash pickup station outside with other bins around