2014, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina
The aim of this project is to carry out a massive, long-term campaign on the local radio stations, promoting and encouraging the community to reduce their use of non-renewable energy. The students are in charge of creating these messages and delivering them; designed as a long-term commitment, the campaign is meant to deliver a constant reminder to the entire community.
2013 Crystal City, Manitoba, Canada
Austin Hudson from Thomas Greenway Middle School was frustrated with people’s lack of knowledge regarding the importance of keeping our watersheds healthy. more specifically, the fact sloughs and other wetlands were being drained on farmer’s fields when they provide such benefit was something wanted to talk about. As his family relies on farming, he could understand the drive to maximize production, but at what cost?
?My solution to this seemly huge issue is education. I will make a wetland diorama and a PowerPoint, called “Save the Stinkin’ Slough.” These will be sent to local schools to tell the kids about how important wetlands are to a watershed. once the kids have seen the presentation they will be given a small test or feedback sheet to show what they have learned. By doing this you can educate young kids who will tell their parents about the usefulness of wetlands. Hopefully the older generation will start thinking, hey those useless pieces of land are actually useful just the way they are! Then those adults will tell other adults. So by educating young people we can maybe save some of the wetlands in our watershed. it wouldn’t take much to do this idea and I think this project will work by educating people on this serious problem and helping them know how to fix it.”
Austin did develop his PowerPoint and thanks to a $1500 contribution from Nutrien also purchased an “Enviroscape” watershed model which will be circulated throughout his and neighboring community school to help spread the word.
He says that the diorama is “very cool and way better than I expected, all the kids in the school were so excited to see it; they all wanted a demonstration.” This was a bit scary for Austin but when it was over he said “I’m glad I did it, Tabitha was a huge help and I learned lots from the other presentations.? Thanks again for this program and providing this experience to so many kids!
2013 Virden, Manitoba, Canada
Emma Jankovics lives in the Upper Assiniboine River Conservation District which is 4208 square miles and has a population of about 6500 people. The district is located in prairie area where the main sources of water are from rivers, lakes and rain water.
As her contribution to our water system “which sustains all living things,” she proposed a way to better sustain it.
“Water is being filled with the runoff from rain water, which along its path collects various pollutants. All of these pollutants end up in the water we swim in, and shower with, and drink. Which means extra work needs to be done to make the water safe and clean. The runoff also causes erosion which can lead to more major flooding. My idea is a small step in the right direction that can help the environment and the local people.
I want to improve the watershed I live in by producing informational brochures educating the community on the benefits of a rain garden to the watershed, and to their homes.”
2013 Hamiota, Manitoba, Canada
Gage, Brady, and Cody, students at Hamiota Collegiate, discovered that most of what’s in their school garbage can actually be composted.
These students proposed purchasing an outdoor composter for their school, noting that education is an important part of the process; a school-wide promotion plan was part of their proposal. “This way if the students know all of the things that would normally go into the garbage at the school now they would be composted and put back in to the environment.” The environmental benefits of composting are numerous, but for these students reducing garbage is key:”this would help the environment because the items would decompose faster n the compost than they would in the landfills.”
Thanks to contribution from Nutrien, Hamiota Collegiate now has an outdoor composter and a school-wide compost program! along with the compost program they have decided that they want to plant and maintain a garden on school property throughout the summer months and into the fall so they can benefit from the nutrient rich composted material.
2013 Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Dag Sinclair and Jason Quinn saw an opportunity for their school to use less plastic bottles. They proposed that all 700 students at their school receive a re-usable metal water bottle. These water bottles were a perfect complement to the school’s new spigot-style water fountains that another student won for their school two years ago.
Dag and Jason shared the following water bottle statistics, from the website Green Upgrader: “Plastic water bottles take over 700 years to begin composting; 90 of the cost of a bottled water is the bottle itself; 80% of plastic water bottles are not recycled; 38,000,000 plastic bottles go to the dump per year in America from bottled water; 24,000,000 gallons of oil are needed to produce 1,000,000 plastic bottles; the average American consumes 167 bottles of water a year.” With that in mind, they felt it was important to “use personal metal water bottles that can be refilled and reused for long periods of time to reduce the use of plastic water bottles and reduce the effects of plastic water bottles and their contents on people and the environment.”
Thanks to a contribution from Nutrien, the school was able to provide a re-usable water bottle for every student. even better, Dag and Jason were able to talk to their principal to make sure that next year’s new grade nine students will receive a water bottle too!
“The goal is to provide the students with metal water bottles that will be paid for from the money granted from the contest this year and the following years in the students fees.”
2013 Arlington Heights, Ohio, USA
A group of three students (Julia Love, Janae McClair and Sanoma Capps) who attend Arlington heights Academy submitted a proposal called “A Rain Garden for I-75 Runoff” to Nutrien’s Caring for our Watersheds contest during the first Ohio competition in 2011-2012. They came in first place!
After the final competition, they met with Wes Duran from Marvin’s Organic Gardens in the fall of 2012 to design and plan implementation of their rain garden. Students worked on determining the plant types, plant numbers and design layout. They also worked on the budget and set a date to start planting. Their budget was $2,00 with one half coming from Nutrien’s grant the students won and the other half a matching grant from Groundwork Cincinnati – Mill Creek, a local non-profit group dedicated to the restoration of the Mill Creek. The date they chose to plant the garden was March 21st, 2013.
Before the studetn’s knew it, it was March and time to plant. It didn’t take long to complete the project that they had been anxiously waiting for; to have their proposal become a reality. With the help of their classmates and the support from their community, the rain garden was completed!
This is a perfect example of how one idea can truly make a difference through hard work and determination. Though the work is done and students will graduate and move on, the teachers and community will continue to care for the rain garden. For instance, they will be responsible for watering the rain garden in the summer and make sure the plants are thriving. Any dead plants will be replaced to maintain the design and function of the garden.
We even have a video of our planting!
2013 Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia
The Environmental Action Team at Warrnambool Special Developmental School, (WWEB Patrol), was a finalist in the 2013 Caring for Our Watersheds competition.
The students realised the potential of reducing the amount of rubbish going into landfill by stopping organic waste entering the equation. They knew that by removing organic waste from landfill bins the amount would be reduced but they wanted to know by how much.
Firstly, over a ten week period, the students measured out a total of 172kg of organic waste entering landfill. From this, the students decided they would redirect the organic waste in a sustainable way, by obtaining compost bins and worm farms.
A number of ‘kitchen caddies’ were purchased and placed next to the rubbish bins to help remind people that they should be putting organic waste in these bins, to be later composted and used on the vegetable garden at school, or put in the worm farm to create worm juice, or simply fed to the school chooks.
Not only did they redirect the organic waste they also aimed to educate the school community on a weekly basis. Each week the school newsletter continues to give hints and tips for recycling at home and also informs parents of the student’s efforts at school, in terms of sustainability.
One student says, “Our project is ongoing and continues to grow. This has been made easier and more effective with the generosity of the Caring for our Watersheds program.”
2013 Kaniva, Victoria, Australia
Students from Kaniva Community College were finalists in the 2013 Caring for our Watersheds competition, with their proposal of an Environmental Week held at their local school.
The aim of this week was to create awareness within the school of: the amount of power and gas being used, the way people dress to keep warm, people’s habits of opening and closing doors, packaging of lunches, and social issues surrounding technology and being sedentary in the classroom
The student’s idea was to have a different theme on the five different days of the school week.
2013 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Benjamin Gresty and Jaxon Lalonde are enrolled in the Eco-Justice environmental and adventure program at St. Edward School. Their proposal for the Caring for our Watersheds competition looked at the problems to the river and surrounding area caused by the failure of people to pick up after their pets. Chances are, if you are a dog owner, you have done the dirty deed of not cleaning up after your dog once or twice. Many people think this is not a big deal. Some even feel that dog waste can act as another kind of fertilizer. This is not the case! When dog waste washes into our local water ways it has negative effects for our South Saskatchewan River Watershed.
When dog owners don’t clean up their dog’s poop, it 
can leach into soil and with it, harmful disease causing micro-organisms like round worms, E. Coli and Giardia that can live in dog feces. This puts children who play outside and adults who garden at risk of these infectious organisms. If dog waste is washed into the storm drains it ends up in lakes, rivers, streams or marine water. People can accidentally swallow its bacteria and other disease-causing organisms while swimming or playing in the water. It can even contaminate ground water!
Dog feces contains nutrients like phosphates and nitrogen that encourage the growth of algae and aquatic plants and is also known to carry terrible diseases such as Whipworm, Hookworm, Tapeworm, Parvovirus, Beaver Fever, Salmonella, and E.coli. Said nutrients and pollutants have caused a major algae growth and pollution problem in Lake Winnipeg, giving it the title of 2013’s most threatened lake.
Jaxon and Benjamin decided to clean up dog feces in a local park and hand out bags to dog owners to raise awareness about how dog poop can affect our watershed
To further spread the information about the problems of dog waste, the students started a “poopagenda” poster campaign in off-leash parks, at bus stops and on lampposts. They have also started working with the City of Saskatoon to have permanent signs installed to educate the public about the potential harm caused by unscooped waste. Picking up the (dog) poo is one small and simple step to a much cleaner watershed!
2013 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Alana Krug-McLeod from Aden Bowman Collegiate in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, proposed the idea of using Kicksleds to help protect the Saskatchewan River Basin by encouraging a change in attitudes towards transportation. “Kickstart Change” aims to popularize a healthy, sustainable, versatile, alternative transportation mode (kicksledding) while promoting winter activities and building useful skills amongst youth. Kicksleds take their inspiration from various places: dogsleds have traditionally been used in northern regions of the world, and even penguins from the south that waddle and then glide on their bellies.
The three phase plan involved building kicksleds, organizing a winter festival, and establishing sustainable transportation infrastructure. The first phase of this project ran from September to December 2013 and involved introducing the concept of the Kicksleds to the Aden Bowman Collegiate industrial arts class who then became involved with the design and building of the kicksleds. These students gathered outdated and damaged skis, reusable wood and metal to use in constructing the kicksleds. The Aden Bowman Collegiate Eco Club awarded donated prizes for the most innovative, efficient, compact, and eco-friendly kicksleds designed and produced by the students.
Alana then approached the ScienceTrek class at Montgomery School as a partner on this project. The ScienceTrek Program is an accelerated science program that combines outdoor activities with intellectual and social awareness-building. ScienceTrek partners include Alana Krug-MacLeod from Aden Bowman Collegiate Institute, who initiated the project, and WeShare, who helped fund the project. After attending the EF Global Student Leaders Summit: Environmental Conference in Costa
Rica in April 2013, Alana received an EF Student Leaders Summit Prize, which included a grant from WeShare. This grant from WeShare was used to fund the project. Many other unofficial partners (parents, community members, teachers and administrators) worked behind the scenes and alongside the students to make this project a success.
The attached pictures showcase the various styles of kicksleds that were built by the ScienceTrek and Aden Bowman Collegiate industrial arts students as well as pictures of the students using the kicksled outside for recreational purposes. Montgomery School, with Alana’s help, put on a winter festival where the kicksleds were unveiled. Interestingly enough, some of the students that participated in Alana’s project have now entered the 2014 CFW competition and have placed in the top ten finalist groups for this year’s competition.