CREATING A MORE BEAUTIFUL TOMORROW

2018, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES
Beautiful Tomorrow

While driving to and from school, Lily Melink would notice maintenance crews mowing the medians and berms of highways and local roads. She realized that mowing and maintaining acres of grass multiple times a year is responsible for releasing varying levels of CO2. Since the burning of fossil fuels is the main contributor to the high levels of CO2 in the atmosphere, Lily wanted to find an effective solution to reduce the number of times the grass had to be cut, and therefore reduce CO2 emissions. She decided to plant wildflowers in these spaces to replace grass because wildflowers only require maintenance once a year.

This project was inspired by programs for planting wildflowers in North Carolina and Texas that Lily had read about. When her environmental science teacher introduced the Caring For Our Watersheds program to her class, Lily decided that it would be the perfect opportunity to implement a similar project in Cincinnati. She read more about wildflowers and learned that they have more benefits to the environment than just reducing the amount of maintenance and therefore CO2. Wildflowers also help prevent erosion and provide habitat area for wild life such as pollinators.
Beautiful Tomorrow

Lily hopes that her project can educate the public on simple actions they can take to benefit the environment and increase community pride in their surroundings. She has already had positive feedback from the public, and says that “It doesn’t take much to make a positive impact on the environment or a community!

T-SHIRT SCARVES FOR HOMELESS HEARTS

2018, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES

Every event today is seemingly paired with a commemorative t-shirt. This causes a problem for the watershed because for each new t-shirt made, humongous amounts of water are used. Also, these commemorative t-shirts are often just thrown away when they could be used further. To combat these two problems, Lauren and Jenice set up a collection at their school to collect these t-shirt that to others seemed to be at the end of their lives. Then, the two along with volunteers created scarves out of the t-shirts that were too worn to donate. This way the scarves could be used again.

The first step of the project was the collection of the t-shirts. Lauren and Jenice utilized the class competition system at their school in order to create excitement for their project. Each grade was given a designated bin to put their t-shirts. The grade that collected the most t-got points in the overall school competition. The collection went on for two weeks from March 19 to March 29. Every couple of days, the t-shirts were counted, and the number was relied to the students in order to keep up the competitive spirit. In the end, the collection managed to bring in a whopping 511 t-shirts to be turned into scarves or donated.

Next came the process of making the scarves. First, all of the t-shirts were washed and dried to make sure they were clean. Then the t-shirts were sorted, with the t-shirts too worn to be donated going towards making scarves. Lauren and Jenice then set up a day to get volunteers to help cut and braid all of the t-shirts into scarves. The design of the scarves were four strand braids, long enough to be wrapped around twice and thick enough to act as an effective scarf. With an army of volunteers, Lauren and Jenice were able to turn many worn and torn t-shirts into lovely scarves to donate. Lastly, all of the scarves and t-shirts were donated to Valley Interfaith Community Resource Center while the t-shirt parts that were not part of the scarves were donated to Matthew 25 Ministries.

Homeless Hearts

SCHOOL YARD CLEAN-UP

2018, RED DEER, ALBERTA, CANADA
School Yard Clean up
Four years before this project, the garbage bins at the two main entrances to Glendale School were torn down by vandals and were never replaced. This led to a lot of unnecessary garbage being dropped on the ground by students eating their snacks and then having no place to put their garbage.

In 2018, a group of students and teachers wanted to make a change on this issue as they could see the harmful effects of all this garbage being blown around. They proposed installing multiple garbage bins in high traffic areas outside of the school so that there would always be a bin close by to properly dispose of any garbage. It was also proposed to add picnic tables and benches at these locations to encourage people to enjoy the outdoors more often.

In the spring of 2019 these dreams became a reality with the purchase and installation of 6 garbage bins, 3 benches, and 11 picnic tables. The amount of people enjoying these spaces has gone up while the amount of litter has gone way down. The simple act of having a garbage bin in sight at every location has encouraged parents and students to use them rather than dropping their garbage on the ground and harming our Red Deer River Watershed.

We want to thank the Caring for Our Watershed sponsors for their contribution to this project. The amount of litter going into the river has gone way down due to the installation of garbage bins in front of our school.

School Yard Clean up

SIMPLE SOLUTIONS FOR LONG-TERM EFFECTS

2018, Sacramento, California, USA

Emily Crofoot, a student at The MET Sacramento High School, wanted to not only educate her fellow students on some important environmental issues and how humans have impacted them, but to also present some simple solutions that would not require a radical lifestyle change and would have financial and/ or health benefits for students too.

She created a presentation entitled “Simple Solutions for Long- Term Effects” and presented it to 8 advisory classes at school. To encourage students to participate in the presentation/ discussion, Emily held a raffle. Students would receive tickets when they answered questions or contributed to the discussion. After the presentation, she would draw tickets and the raffle winners took home various sustainable goods, such as reusable water bottles, pencils made from recycled newspapers etc.

A fun way to engage students in an important topic!

DRIP IRRIGATION FOR THE MET GARDEN

2018, Sacramento, California, USA

As Vice President of the Garden Club at The MET Sacramento High School, Isa Sheikh had ideas for making the garden a more water efficient, sustainable operation. With Caring for Our Watersheds project funding, he installed a drip irrigation system that would allow each plant to be watered directly, reducing moisture loss through evaporation.

The timer installed with the system allows plants to be watered at the most appropriate times of day (which is not always when the club is meeting on campus), and watering can continue on school breaks and throughout the summer. This simple upgrade to the school garden is conserving water and helping to grow a thriving garden on campus.

Begging for Air (Song)

The inspirational song, Begging for Air, was submitted in the 2017-2018 school year by Manitoba finalists Alexander Clemis and local singer-songwriter, Faouzia Ouihya. The ballad is written from the perspective of a tree, with the intention to motivate others to create change in their community.

“The most important aspect of our solution is it can help inspire humans of all ages all over the world to protect and even promote their own
watershed for the future generations to come.” -Faouzia.

Participating teachers received a Caring for Our Watersheds USB with a copy of the song and an informational poster.

Silence Please

2018 San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

EES N° 1, San Antonio de Areco. Students: Aylén, Melina, Tomás, Martina silence please student action

This project is based on the recycling of waste materials and the impact of sounds as a health issue. It proposes to use different materials to improve the acoustic problems in the classrooms of this High School. After trying out different recycling materials, based on acoustic measures made by the students, they confirmed that this intervention is beneficial for the classrooms.

They will choose a classroom as model and will alter its walls and roof with different “layers” that will help improve the noise levels. The idea is to measure the impact of this intervention as a previous step to proposing a school-wide intervention of all the classrooms in the school.

*This project received the donation of floor from Nutrien Ag Solutions, cardboard tube, and its waiting the final approval for the class intervention.

Bike Powered Charger

2018, Sacramento, California, USA

Bike Powered Charger

Justis Cooper had a unique idea to build a bike/ pedal powered generator students could use in the school workout room to charge their cell phones. This project will help demonstrate an energy-saving device (by “self” producing energy through pedaling) and encourage interest in sustainable technology at his school, The MET Sacramento.

Justis interns at a bike shop in Sacramento, so he had some “industry” knowledge and a mentor to help him complete his project. He plans on including signage by the bike to highlight the project and so students understand what they are using, how it works, and the potential energy savings. Stay fit and fully charged!

COMPOST SYSTEM AT G.W. CARVER HIGH SCHOOL

Compost Bin for GW Carver California

2018, Sacramento, California, USA

To complement Carver’s robust school garden, Stan Tokarev and Mevin Deo are building a three-sectioned bin to start a composting system at school.

This will divert food and garden waste from the local landfill, provide nutrient-rich soil for the garden, and demonstrate the process and environmental benefits of composting.

The students are using a combination salvaged and new materials for the bin.

Save the Bees & St. James School Composting

2018, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

In 2018, Sofia and Kristiane of St. James School in Calgary, AB implemented their project entitled “Save the Bees” throughout their schoolyard and adjacent to their outdoor classroom. While researching colony collapse disorder, the importance of protecting our native bee species, and their role in food production and ecosystem health, Sofia and Kristiane’s project helps support solitary mason bees throughout their community. They installed bee hotels in their school green space and planted native wildflowers and shrubs specifically to attract and support bee populations in the area. They then educated other classes at their school on these bee hotels and the importance of bees in our local ecosystems, encouraging others to follow suite and take action.

From the same class, Cole brought composting to St. James School to reduce food waste, provide nutrients for the soil in their gardens, and educate students and members of his community on the positive role composting plays in the environment and in our watershed. Cole also aimed to improve the mental health of students and teachers in his school by encouraging not only the use of their composter, but also the use of their outdoor classroom and garden space.

As the St. James Outdoor Classroom continues to evolve, students will share watershed information with their peers and educate them as to the benefits of learning in nature and natural spaces in an urban environment.