Green Learning

2014 Lockport, Manitoba, Canada

According to Kailey Evans children need to spend more time outside. As a result of spending less time outside, “children aren’t thinking about the environment or how to take proper care of their watershed.” She suggested creating an outdoor pond for students to do experiments, dip for water bugs, and learn more about water.

Kailey saw the perfect fit at a nearby school, where an outdoor classroom was already in place. This special classroom means a lot to Kailey: “When I was in grade seven at Lockport, this outdoor classroom had just started. The pond had been dug out, but it was never able to retain water so we could never use this pond to its full potential.”

Thanks to a generous contribution from Nutrien, the dugout is now a pond, and students are already dipping for bugs! As Kailey has pointed out: “Environmental education provides the capability and skills over time to analyze environmental issues, engage in problem solving, and take action to sustain and improve the environment.”

Lacombe Educational Aquaponics Food System (LEAFS)

2014 Lacombe, Alberta, Canada

EcoVision is an environmental-based club for students at Lacombe Composite School. EcoVision has built and runs a greenhouse growing fresh herbs and vegetables in a geodesic dome on the school’s property. A sub-committee of this group is called LEAFS- Lacombe Aquaponics Foods System. LEAFS entered the 2014 CFW Contest with its goal is to build an efficient and sustainable aquaponics system in the greenhouse. The system benefits the Battle River watershed by raising awareness about watershed issues, promoting community involvement, and increases the schools ability to grow their own healthy food. The water used in the aquaponics system will be re-used to water the plants in the greenhouse.

LEAFS will raise tilapia and vegetables for their cafeteria and have a license to sell surplus items to the greater community. The LEAFS system will lower the schools ecological footprint by growing their own food and limiting greenhouse gas emissions from transport, and recycling waste water. The school will also benefit from enhanced educational opportunities and collaboration with community members. Lacombe Composite High School will be one of the first schools in Canada to have a running Aquaponics program that supplies its cafeteria with fresh fish and vegetables.

More information can be found on the EcoVison website: www.lchsecovision.weebly.com

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!

EnviroWeek

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.

Monday- Walk to School Day (walking school bus)
Tuesday- Casual Clothes Day (dress warmly, no heaters used on that day at school, gold coin donation to help purchase the trees for planting)
Wednesday- Nude Food Day (no rubbish in the lunch boxes of all students and teachers! This day also included a rubbish pick up during the day.)
Thursday- Tree Planting Day (native plants planted around the school grounds to provide habitat for native fauna.)
Friday- Minimum Energy Day (at the school and the wider community – no heaters or lights on at the school and an electronic free lunchtime.)

Riperian Restoration

2013 Forestburg, Alberta, Canada

The Golden Prairie 4-H club out of Forestburg has made a positive impact in the Battle River Watershed. Maven Boddy, a natural leader in the club, entered the Caring for our Watersheds contest with a proposal to improve riparian health that was both multi-faceted and forward thinking. Her plan to improve riparian areas involved planting hundreds of trees along the riverbank, but that wasn’t all. Her plan also incorporated educating the club and community on the importance of riparian areas and implementing a long-term health assessment on the project site.

Prior to tree planting, the club planned an educational canoe ride along the area of the river that would be restored with the seedlings. During the ride participants were taught about riparian areas and factors contributing to their declining health. This was also a great opportunity for a crash course in Alberta ecology, with a plethora of birds and other animals to see and hear.

On the tree planting day approximately 30 volunteers from the 4-H club gathered to plant over 200 seedlings. A variety of native trees and shrubs were chosen that would grow well in the Alberta climate. These trees will improve the strength of the riverbank with their roots and also provide wildlife with habitat for years to come. The project site will now be monitored in order to determine how the health of the area is improving. Maven invited local experts to carry out riparian health assessments and bird surveys, and a second round of assessments is planned for a few years down the road. Funding for the trees and health assessments came from a Victory Canola 4-H Grant as well as from Nutrien’s implementation funds.

Students Raise Salmon in Their Classroom for Release

2013 Stockton, California, USA

When Stockton Collegiate juniors Breana Inoshita, Nura Nasser, and Alyssa Somers were directed to research the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and identify an environmental concern, the girls identified a native fish facing declining populations, Chinook salmon. Raising salmon would help bring awareness to the student body of Stockton Collegiate that Chinook salmon are native to the Delta and that the salmon population has been declining for a variety of reasons.

In March 2012 Inoshita, Nasser, and Somers were awarded 7th place in the Caring for Our Watersheds competition for their plan to raise salmon and release them to the Delta. Starting in December of 2012 the girls implemented their plan at school with funding from Caring for Our Watersheds. With the help of their school club, they built the incubator for the salmon, and eggs were delivered on December 19, 2012. The tank was monitored daily for appearance (of the salmon), water temperature, and pH. When the salmon fry were finally ready, the girls and their teacher traveled north east to just below the Mokelumne River Hatchery, and helped release the fry on March 22nd, 2013.

The students plan on raising salmon again next year and will include a second incubator at the Stockton Children’s Museum.

Students who are a part of the after school program will maintain and monitor the incubator. This project will bring more awareness and education about the salmon native to our watershed to the greater Stockton community.

“Green” Education for Life

2013, San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

This project emphasizes the early teaching of environment care to kindergarten students. It aims to teach the students about nature and simple ways to take care of it. One example is by making vegetable gardens that are built with disposable materials. This project also implements puppet shows and plays to captivate students while also creating awareness.

CNC assisted in the project by putting the students in contact with two plastic artists. These artists helped the students create a “square garden” with puppets for the puppet shows/plays and an “owl” that illustrates different images of birds and trees.