Students Demonstrate Water Efficient Landscaping

2012 Sacramento, California, USA

Florin High School students identified an opportunity on their school campus to demonstrate water-efficient landscaping, educate fellow students, parents, and community members, and beautify the school. Their proposal was to overhaul 8 old school planter boxes, which formerly held only unsightly weeds, old tree stumps, and garbage, by planting drought-tolerant California native species. Native species are adapted to the local climate and environment and do not require long-term irrigation or use of pesticides.

Acknowledging the diversity of their community, they also planned to install interpretive signs in 8 languages to educate on the benefits of landscaping with native species, such as conserving water, supporting native pollinators and bird species, etc. Students also would to give tours of the planters on back to school nights and other events to educate community members in addition to the student body.

When the students, who were mostly ESL Learners, gave a solid presentation at the 2012 Caring for Our Watersheds (CFW) final competition, they took second place and decided to implement their project with available CFW funds and additional club fundraisershe CFW finalists, as well as other members of their Watershed Team, planted in two phases. Fortunately, the school donated maintenance staff time to clear the planters of old tree stumps and fix existing irrigation, as this required some machinery. The students then refilled the planters with soil and planted a variety of California native forbs and shrubs. In addition to drawing attention to the newly refurbished planters, the students also drew more attention and interest to their afterschool Watershed Team, which has since tripled in size. These students will not only continue to care for the planter boxes, but will also continue to pursue other watershed stewardship and education opportunities in their community

Students Create Water Efficient Irrigation System for School Garden

2012 Sacramento, California, USA

Students in the Green ROP Program at William Daylor High School were concerned about the amount of water that is wasted by home or commercial building owners that use older or traditional methods of watering their yards, gardens, or landscaping. tools such as sprinklers and hoses themselves, or when used during an inappropriate time of day, can often lead to an inefficient use of water. As water conservation is critical in California, they wanted to complete a project in their school garden to demonstrate a water efficient drip irrigation system.

The team submitted a proposal to install drip irrigation to the school garden, but also wanted to incorporate a water catchment barrel, pump, soil sensor, and solar=powered controller for the system.

The students worked with an irrigation specialist from the city who met with the students at school to show them how to install drip line to the boxes, and to show how a solar controller could help them regulate the watering of the garden. This specialist was able to get distributors to donate many materials and equipment, such as the drip line and solar controller. The students utilized the Caring for Our Watersheds implementation funding for the pump and sensor.

The Green ROP class now has an efficient, educational tool for the students to learn from because they can program watering times and lengths according to the change in season, temperature, and needs of the plants. The school no longer mishaps of over-watering by people leaving the sprinklers or hoses running. The rain barrel and pump is hooked up to the irrigation system to be used first before they need to use the city water source. The project truly demonstrates water efficiency and was a real success!

Rain Barrel Workshop

2012 Arlington, Virginia, USA

When sixth graders from Kenmore Middle School visited Four Mile Run at Bluemont Park in Arlington, they were surprised to find that the water was low in dissolved oxygen. To help address some of the causes, such as elevated temperatures in runoff and stormwater-borne pollutants, nutrients and organic materials, they decided to promote the use of rain barrels as a citizen-based approach to stormwater management.

To accomplish this goal, students held a rain barrel workshop for the community, educating residents about the use of rain barrels to help improve water quality. Their presentation discussed how stormwater affects dissolved oxygen in Four Mile Run, then covered techniques for decorating the rain barrels. Workshop participants could purchase rain barrels at reduced cost, decorating them them for use at home. 25 individuals from nine households attended, and twelve rain barrels went home with the workshop participants.

Puppets with a Purpose

2012 Washington DC, USA

After conducting surveys at their school, Brookland Education Campus sixth graders realized that few of their peers have of their peers had any awareness of the condition of their watershed, and they decided to work to raise and held a pep rally for the younger students at Brookland, so that their audience would better understand their impact on watershed health and commit to taking action to improve it.

Anti-Litter Signs

2012 Washington DC, USA

When students conducted water monitoring on a tributary of Sligo Creek, they were troubled by the extent of trash evident in and around the stream, and they decided to carry an anti-litter message through the neighborhood with anti-litter signs. They contacted the city government to obtain permission, and mapped out where to place the signs throughout the neighborhood for best effectiveness.

They designed signage online, and had the design produced as durable metal signs.

Areco Tree Friends

2012 San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

These students created a club to promote awareness of the environmental benefits of trees in urban areas. They started by institutionalizing the “Club Areco Tree Friends” in their school. First they created a Facebook account where they gathered and shared information about the importance and the environmental functions of trees, including photographs and the good or bad conditions of the local trees. They also published information about environmental activities that are being held and other environmental news. By hanging posters with information and our logo, the students continue to create awareness at school, and the students invited their peers – and anyone else who is interested – to follow them on Facebook.

The students also used their social media platform to promote the photograph contest held by the students of San Antonio school.

The Trees of Our Town

2012 San Antonio de Areco, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Students from N2 Ricardo Pannunzio Secondary School, with special orientation in arts, presented an awareness contest about the local trees.

In order to promote the need to become aware of environmental care, they suggested cultural activities and calendars to spread the word. They prepared a photograph competition with the theme “Local Trees”.

The contest was open to all students of San Antonio de Areco watershed schools. Each student could present up to three photos. More than 120 photos were presented. The 13 winning photographs were chosen by the Jury. These photos were used to create the 2013 calendar that was distributed in the local area (library, schools, museums, etc.)

These 13 winning photographs will be part of the 2013 exhibition of the Museum Las Lilas (in San Antonio de Areco) and, as it was proposed, they will also be displayed at nearby community exhibitions.

In order to broadcast their contest, this team worked side by side with another group of students that also won the CFW contest by creating a Facebook account.

Project Penguin

2012 Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Alana Krug-McLeod from Aden Bowman Collegiate in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, proposed the idea of developing an educational and entertaining program that will encourage individuals to understand and protect vital water sources – both locally and internationally. Project Penguin is set up to provide individuals new reasons to care about the environment and new ways to join others to make a difference. It is important to learn why everyone’s everyday actions matter and how to make changes that prevent harm and that will do good.

To undertake this informative program, Alana decided to set up a number of geo-caches. The materials contained within the geo-caches included sample cards and decorated “penguin” eggs. The cards and eggs were created with the assistance of the art club.

An educational DVD containing videos and information shorts was then created and distributed to schools.

The Learning Garden Project

2012 Gimli, Manitoba, Canada

Cheyenne Svenson, Katelyn MacVicar, Heida Arnbjornson and Emma Wear from Gimli High School live on the shores of Lake Winnipeg and are very conscious of how what happens in the lake is intertwined with the health of their watershed.

This dynamic team proposed to create a garden area by their school to provide produce for their cafeteria and Foods & Nutrition program as well as their local Evergreen Needs community assistance program (which provides assistance to members in many ways, including food hampers).

After months of planning the students at Gimli High School were very exciting to start the construction of their school’s Learning Garden. Along with Nutrien’s contribution of $2,000, this garden was made possible by two community organizations: Nutrients for Life and the Manitoba Eco-Network. “The Learning Garden is a great opportunity to engage students with hands on learning opportunities in many different curricular areas. The Learning Garden is a pilot project to teach students the importance of food security issues that are prevalent here and around the world. GHS’s Learning Garden is also being used as an exemplar for other schools in Manitoba to create their own gardens.” says Lisa Pidwinski, project teacher at Gimli High School.

Otis and Friends Environmental Prevention Book: “The Problem With Pollution”

2012 Ponoka, Alberta, Canada

Building on their success in the 2011 CFW contest, Katie, Vickie and Melissa from St. Augustine School in Ponoka AB created a second book in the ‘Otis and Friends Environmental Adventures’ book series. The book teaches young children in grades 2-4 about how their positive or negative actions can affect the watershed and what they can do to help it.

This book, which was hand drawn with professional quality, tells the story of Bernie, a rare black-footed ferret. In the story Bernie’s den entrance gets blocked by a pop can which had been thrown out a passing car window. Bernie gets the help of his animal friends and one special little girl to remove the pop can and save his family trapped inside. The little girl realizes how much litter is in the field and works with her family and community to organize a clean-up and to create signage to prevent future littering.

The Black-Footed Ferret fact sheet at the end of the book provides details of this grassland endangered species which is now rare across North America. The book also provides helpful suggestion and facts about protecting ecosystems and preventing litter.

The book printing has been sponsored by Nutrien, Keyera and Grey Wooded Forage Association. 200 copies have been printed to date (July 2012) and will be distributed to all of the Parkland Regional Libraries, as well as through school visits by the Battle River Watershed Alliance.