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.

Plants Improving Air Quality

2018, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

In 2018, Alicia Poovong of Lester B. Pearson School in Calgary, Alberta placed sixth in the 2018 Caring for Our Watersheds contest with her project “Plants Improving Air Quality”.

Alicia is a passionate gardener and active member of her high school’s gardening club. While working with the club, Alicia and her teacher saw an opportunity to improve the air quality of their school by placing air purifying plants throughout various classrooms and learning spaces. By identifying concerns with high amounts of carbon emissions and urban byproducts that pollute our air and contaminate our drinking water sources, Alicia saw a strong connection between the quality of the air we breathe and the health of our Bow River Watershed.

Starting small-scale, Alicia had a positive impact on the air quality of her school by growing and distributing air filtering plants such as spider plants, ferns and ivy, to name a few, in and out of Lester B. Pearson.

Her and her teacher have also set up growing stations with UVA/UVB plant lights and solutions to local pest insects, to ensure the survival and health of these beneficial plants. Through partnerships with her school administration, Gardening Club, the Caring for Our Watersheds program, fundraising and community donations, she hopes to keep this viable, low-cost benefit to our neighbourhoods and watershed going for future students in the years to come.

Schoolyard Rain Garden and Tree Planting

2018, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

In 2018, Tina Tran of St. James School in Calgary, AB implemented her project “Rain Gardens – How Can They Impact Our Planet?”. Her goal for the project was to build a healthy rain garden in the schoolyard and educate students on the significant impacts of conserving water to our watershed. The benefits that Tina identified in researching and implementing her project included reducing the amount of carbon dioxide by allowing for more native vegetation respiration processes to occur, and conserving water by planting water-wise plants to improve soil water retention. Her and her class planted native tree and shrub species, and incorporated healthy mulch into their schoolyard gardens to inhibit weed growth and decrease the amount of water required in the rain gardens.

From the same class, Ben Trudeau spearheaded his tree planting project throughout the same garden and outdoor classroom space at his school, St. James.

He also distributed soil high in nutrients throughout these green spaces to allow for more effective growth and fill in some of the gaps throughout the gardens. Species of shrubs, birch and willow trees were planted, and the increased vegetation is supporting clean air and healthy habitats for local, native wildlife. The project has also improved the aesthetics and learning opportunities for students engaging in the outdoor classroom.

Rainwater Collection and Reuse

2018 Capitan Sarmiento, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Escuela de Educación Técnica n° 1 de Capitán Sarmiento. Students: Franco, Lautaro, Matías, Oriana

The project developed a rainwater collection and filtration system for the school roofs. The water recycling of this system is used in a first stage to irrigate a vertical garden built by students in an external schoolyard. This space will be used as a classroom open to the study of nature.

The students received mentoring and collaboration from Arq. Julieta Sacher y la Arq. Laura Valda.

vertical garden construction

*This project received the donation of some plants from “LAM garden”, “Pamela Picardi garden”, and participation and help from the students families.

S.A.P.O. (FROG)

2018 Capitan Sarmiento, Buenos Aires, Argentina water collecting module

Escuela de Educación Técnica n° 1 de Capitán Sarmiento y Escuela de Educación Técnica N° 1 de San Andrés de Giles.

This project proposed improved water management through rainwater recycling. The students created a small prop, in a small-scale module in which rainwater recollection from the school’s roof is used in a learning module to study fluid physics. The students created the module in a simple way so other schools can replicate the model.

Water Down the Drain

2018, Milliken, Colorado, USA

Brecken Sawyer, William Loecke, Regan Craig, Roosevelt High School

The team walked around Roosevelt High School and wondered what they could do to help the school’s daily water consumption. They noticed the current faucets throughout the school spit out over two gallons per minute. They researched options for decreasing the flow from the faucets and discovered a simple solution – Faucet Aerators.

Student Action CO

This solution was low cost and simple, yet reduced the flow of water out of each faucet in the school. In April, they installed the aerators on the 40 faucets throughout the high school. In addition, they presented the low-flow aerator concept to the middle school STEM classes and distributed the aerators to each student to use in their home. The team estimates they saved 6,600 gallons of water at their school and over 4000 gallon of water in homes. The total cost for this project was only $131.

Using Every Last Drop

2018, Greeley, Colorado, USA

Every Last Drop Student Action

Hanna Knoedler, Northridge High School

When students decide to use paint, they have a hard time determining the correct amount of paint needed which results in them taking too much. When there is paint left over at the end of class, that paint is being wasted by throwing it away or dumping it down the drain. As more paint is disposed down the drain it begins to clog the system and creates a problem for the
wastewater treatment plant. Using a measuring device, limits the specific amount of paint taken by students.

CO Every Last Drop Final Competition

In addition, collecting the unused paint by color can be used prior to getting paint from the main source. Hanna incorporated paint pumps into the art class. She also created a paint filter using and embroidery ring and a coffee filters for unused paint.

The entire budget for saving paint and keeping the sinks clear was only $182.

Lighting the Way to a Better “Watts”-ershed

2018, Greeley, Colorado, USA

Haley Wood, Union Colony Preparatory School

Haley realized that improperly disposing of compact fluorescent light bulbs can put harmful mercury into the environment. Haley’s project aimed to reduce the amount of mercury in the watershed while making her school more energy efficient and aware of the impact of CFLs.

Watt 1

Haley designed a recycling drive at her school at which faculty and students could bring their CFLs for recycling at a local Lowes. In addition, she purchased LED light bulbs for here school and hung posters and flyers explaining the impact of CFL and LED bulbs.

Overall, she collected 239 CFL and installed 78 LED bulbs around the school for only $317.00.

AQUAPONICS SYSTEM AT MIRA LOMA HIGH SCHOOL

2017, Sacramento, California, USA

Aquaponics at Mira Loma

Ravina Sidhu took 4^th place in the Caring for Our Watersheds finals for her excellent proposal to build an aquaponics system on her school’s campus to demonstrate this water and resource efficient growing system. After Ravina proposed this project, her sister Jasleen (pictured above w/ teacher C. Kelly) helped to build and install the aquaponics system at school in order to cultivate native plants for an ongoing riparian restoration project. Aquaponics, a system that combines the raising of fish with the growing of plants, uses substantially less water than traditional growing as water and nutrients are recycled in a closed-loop fashion.

WATER FILTER PROJECT AT MIRA LOMA

2017, Sacramento, California, USA

Water Filter Mira Loma

Mira Loma High School students Savannah Bosley and Jesus Gonzalez were concerned about the amount of disposable plastic bottles used by students on their campus. Savannah, as President of the Recycling club, saw bins and trash cans overloaded with these bottles everyday. Many students said they brought these single-use water bottles to school because of the poor tasting water at fountains, or because the fountains were old and did not work well and because there was not a place to fit water bottles under to fill up.

Savannah and Jesus decided that a water filtration system on campus would help alleviate some of these issues by providing a convenient source of filtered water for students and staff. When looking into options, there were some restrictions with both plumbing and security issues that did not allow for the installation of the popular Elkay water filling station at a central location on campus. After discussing alternatives with school staff, Savannah and Jesus installed filter units on the sink faucets in multiple classrooms at school, allowing easy access to filtered water for all students on campus throughout the day.