International Rain Barrel Giveaway

image1-2 Rain barrels are designed to collect water, but one distinctive rain barrel designed by students at Daysland School in central Alberta is garnering just as much attention as it is water.

Butterflies, toads, dragonflies and other flora and fauna help depict a healthy watershed on a rain barrel designed by 20 students from grades five to 12 at Daysland School. It also helped the classroom win $1,000 through an international rain barrel giveaway and art contest sponsored by Nutrien’s Caring for our Watersheds (“CFW”) program.

Wall Intervention

2014, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The students form The San Antonio de Areco High School N°4 proposed to enhance a blank school with art. These art pieces express methods of recycling, managing environmental impact, and educating/raising awareness of our impact on the environment. To represent all of these ideas the students created 2 sections on the wall.

The first part of the wall focuses on sustainable production, and includes an area for composting leftovers from student lunches. This compost is eventually used to provide nutrients to a vertical green garden on the wall that is made from plastic pipes. The vertical garden is also being watered by a drip-irrigation system that collects rainwater from the rain barrel and distributes it.

The second portion of the wall consists of artistic drawings of nature, and also includes biodiversity information that can be captured with students’ cell phones through a QR code.

Sketching for Consciousness

2014, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project proposes the painting of large walls that are located in a popular place of town visited by both tourists and locals. The paintings will be focused on environmental stewardship to raise awareness on the topic. The idea is to gather all students from the district schools and invite them to participate in a “drawing competition” in which judges from the School of Arts will choose the winner. The winning designs will be painted on the chosen walls as a means of social education.

Awareness Campaign: Use of Agrochemicals

2014, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project proposes the implementation of an awareness campaign directed at both farmers and the community. The purpose of the campaign is to inform everyone about the benefits and the dangers associated with the use of agrochemicals in food production and residential use.

The campaign emphasizes the use of new products that have low environmental impact (green lines) to control pests/disease. In their presentation, the students stressed that choosing “green band” agrochemicals is not much more expensive than using ordinary products, and provide large benefit to the environment.

In their “final year” science fair the students prepared a Caring for our Watersheds stand where they distributed surveys inquiring about the use of chemical products at home, and where these products were stored. The students also distributed an awareness CD to the farmers provided by CIAFA (An Argentine industry Cham of fertilizer and agrochemical).

The overall aim was to raise awareness, and make everyone more conscientious about the use of chemicals at their homes and farms.

White Contamination

2014, San Andres de Giles, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project aims to educate the community about the importance of reducing the use of plastic bags, and the dangers associated with use of these bags.

The first stage of the project was to raise public awareness through various media. The students prepared informative messages and used the school radio to spread their communications. The second stage of the project was to present their messages to local and provincial authorities.

To the students’ excitement, the Mayor of the County (Municipality) signed the ordinance prohibiting the use of plastic bags starting January 1, 2015!

Eco-Bins

2014, SAN ANDRES DE GILES, BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA

The aim of this project is to educate kindergarten and elementary school students on separating waste by designing special bins with different characters that catch the attention of the children. These cartoons or characters will have a name and will contain an mp3 device that will deliver a message every time plastic is thrown inside of it. The system also has a sensor to count and display the amount of plastic thrown in by students, thus raising awareness on recycling plastic.

This project was implemented with the help of “Open Electronics Laboratory of the Engineering Department of the University of Buenos Aires” and the group “Viralata” (Luisa Bohorquez and Sebastian Perez) who collaborated with the design; the messages were created by the students.

Environmental Sustainability: Awareness (2)

2014 Solis, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project proposes a solution to the problem of classifying and separating garbage in a small town called Solis. The students proposed an awareness campaign that outlined the benefits of separating garbage at schools and at home. They started within the school by visiting every class, and explaining the benefits of separating garbage and how to distinguish between organic and inorganic materials.

The students also proposed to create a database of the quantity of garbage produced by the school. This would be broken down by weight of the garbage, and categorized by organic and inorganic waste. This database would illustrate the reduction of landfill garbage over time, and hopefully influence students and staff to start separating garbage in their own homes as well.

The awareness campaign broadened its scope when it was highlighted by the local radio station. Previous to the launch of this campaign, Caring For our Watershed’s brought in an expert on communication and media advertisement to explain and help the students to prepare their own campaign.

The students also received 2 different coloured bags to distribute throughout town, and further help the community to separate their organic and inorganic materials too. The students began distribution with restaurants, stores and family homes.

The mayor of the town is even getting more involved with their idea, and the hope is that the entire town will start separating their garbage.

Creating Alternative Energy in Schools

2014 Duggan, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The Duggan Agricultural School educates on pig, sheep and cattle production, as well as dairy and poultry industry; an industry that not only produces consumer products but also contaminating effluents. They intend to address this problem by installing a biodigester to transform the animal manure into biogas and organic fertilizer for internal use.

Organized and directed by Energizar (Foundation focus on renewable energy) and a group of volunteers of UBA (University of Buenos Aires) they worked alongside the students and headmaster of the school to create this biodigester. This project is an educational solution associated with the environmental care, and it is also an educational tool for students to learn directly in their school how the energy is transformed.

Measuring the Level of Areco River

2014, Carmen de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This high school, with a specialization in electronics, proposed the creation and implementation of a wireless system used to collect data on the San Antonio River flow levels.

Through a collective workshop of teachers and students they designed an ultrasonic sensor for measuring water level. This project was implemented in collaboration with the “Open Electronics Laboratory of the Department of Engineering of the University of Buenos Aires” (LABI-UBA).

Recovering What We Should Have Never Lost

2015, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The aim of this project was to afforest, with native species, the sidewalks of two bare blocks in the
town of Villa Lía. These two blocks were chosen because 52 new houses have been recently constructed in the area. The project has many benefits including the environmental benefits, and community participation in the implementation of this project.

To ensure the sustainability of this project, the students also had the idea of creating a commitment contract in which the neighbours commit to maintaining the species planted along the sidewalks.

The students were mentored by Gabriel Burgueño, a biodiversity specialist, who educated them and assisted in the selection of native trees.