ROBBIE’S RIVER RESCUE

2019, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

Renee and Odessa of St. George School in Saskatoon created a children’s book that shows a rubber duck named Robbie accidentally getting lost down the bathtub drain. Robbie then experiences going through the water treatment plant. Along his journey he makes a connection with a girl rubber duck named Penny. His owner, Jack, and little sister, Emily, are searching and doing anything they can to find him, and in the end they rescue both Robbie and Penny from the River.

They want to print off 15 books for their school library and classrooms grades 1-3. The girls also want to put one book in each Catholic school in Saskatoon and surrounding areas of Warman, Martensville, and Humboldt. Eventually they would like to put a book in every Public school in Saskatoon as well.

Renee and Odessa are excited to share their knowledge gained through the Caring For Our Watersheds program, especially to the younger classes, as they were not educated on where the water goes after entering the storm drain system when they were younger. They are proud to spread awareness of the water treatment and sanitary sewer drain systems and how they affect the health of our watershed. The girls are already thinking of writing a sequel focusing on storm drains.

Hydrology Education

2019, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Holy Cross School grade 8 students Carliana and Vrinda wanted to make a change in the way their peers use water, so they came up with the idea to have an assembly to educate students and teachers about conserving water. Thinking of the future means thinking of our youth today. They explored themes related to the importance of freshwater, why it is important to conserve water, why it is important to keep our water resources clean, and what they can do at home and at school to make a difference.

“Educating other students on water and why it is important now means that they will have that knowledge as they grow up, making positive changes become habit early on.”

Reduce, Reuse and Upcycle!

2019, Woodbridge, Virginia, USA

Lake Ridge Middle School recently underwent an expansion of the school in order to house more students. During this expansion, an outdoor courtyard was created. In 2017-2018, the Ecology Club created a raised vegetable garden to help students experience the growth of food and caring for the Earth. This school year (2018-2019), the club wanted to focus on how to care for our waterways, while still adding to our garden and the biodiversity seen around our school.

The students decided to take trash from the school grounds and dumpsters and turn it into gardening tools and containers. Items bound for landfills and in storm drains can unintentionally make their way to our watershed, the nearby Occoquan River.

reduce reuse recycle implementation Chesapeake Bay

The students hope that by taking discarded items and turning them into beautiful plant containers, fencing and a rain barrel they will be able to reduce the amount of trash in the Occoquan, inspire other students and staff to upcycle materials in beneficial ways and increase the number of beneficial plants and insects in our area.

reduce reuse recycle implementation Chesapeake Bay Many of our students are disconnected from nature. In a recent school survey, over 80% of students reported spending less than 15 minutes a day outside. This removal from the outside world impacts how the kids view the Earth and challenges that society faces with environmental issues. The students in the Ecology Club are using this courtyard garden to teach the other students at school about pollution, it’s impact on our water and soil, the importance of pollination and pollinators, biodiversity and where food comes from. It is not a complicated project, but it is profoundly changing how some students will approach their natural world. Their hope is for a cascade effect. They want to clean our local grounds and use that trash to beautify the garden by planting herbs and flowers in it. That it will increase the number of insects and birds in the garden and inspire the humans at school to do the same.

E.E.E (ECOLOGICAL EDUCATION SPACE)

2018 Carmen de Areco, Buenos Ares, Argentina

EES T N° 1, Carmen de Areco. Students: Nicolás, Agustina (all the classroom was involved with the implementation)

This Project intends to create a classroom-space dedicated to natural sciences and new technologies. This classroom-space will have laboratory characteristics in which native plants, both aquatic and terrestrial, will be produced, based on a novel production system such as aeroponics and the associated parmaculture.

student action implementation EEE This project combines other CFW projects; they used arduinos system and the idea of the 2017 winning project “smart light” that manages the light intensity and the day / night duration. They are using renewable energy, solar photovoltaic, solar thermal peltier cells and the whole system is robotic and managed by arduinos. They have humidity, co2, and intensity sensors and different types of luminosity.

They also wanted to make an aquatic system and a system with algae for a biofilter. They will be breeding native fish to re-populate the streams in the area. All this will be done within a research framework supported by sensors and powered by renewable energies.

WATERSHED BIOLOGY FIELD TRIP

Watershed Biology Trip Group

2018, Sacramento, California, USA

Evelin Pelayo knew that if her fellow students were to become stewards of the watershed, they first needed to engage directly with it through hands-on study of our natural resources. Without this direct experience, she felt it would be more difficult for her classmates to feel connected to the natural world and make choices to protect it. Therefore, Evelin wrote a proposal to fund a field trip to Donner Summit, where students would collect and analyze data under the guidance of Headwaters Institute staff.

Watershed Biology Trip 1

Each group studied a different aspect of Watershed Biology. For example, her group studied water depth and flow in relation to the number and species of invertebrates, while another sampled vegetation at various distances from water to compare.

Evelin’s Caring for Our Watersheds proposal and funding from Nutrien helped more of her classmates have this unique experience, in which they learned about scientific data collection techniques, the interaction of biotic and abiotic factors, the local environment, and each other on a whole new level.

WOMEN FOR THE WATERSHED

2018, CINCINNATI, OH, USA
Women for Watershed
Ashley Yeoman and Kassidi Puthoff designed the Women for the Watershed week at their high school, Mount Notre Dame. Their project was designed to educate young high school women about the local Ohio watersheds and to spread awareness about what they, in turn, can do to help protect them. Ashley and Kassidi designed a week-long awareness event, during which students learned about water cleanliness, water preservation, recycling, littering, the harmful impacts of plastic and other toxins, and many other environmental protection topics.

Each day of the week, Ashley and Kassidi had a different activity or environmental announcement for students during homeroom. To kick off Monday, students watched a short, engaging video about the watershed – what it is, how humans cause harm to it, and what steps can be taken to protect it. Then, on Wednesday, there was a school-wide competition, during which students applied the information from Monday’s video to complete a homeroom quiz, or “hodge podge”. Each girl in the winning homeroom received a S’well stainless steel water bottle. Ashley and Kassidi chose stainless steel water bottles due to their positive environmental impacts. In the United States, the average person drinks about 170 plastic water bottles per year. Multiply this number by 24 girls, and in one year, one MND homeroom is using over 4,000 plastic water bottles. If these girls continue using the water bottles in years to come, imagine the number of plastic bottles that will be prevented from harming the earth.

Ashley and Kassidi also had a recycling poster contest at school. There are several recycling bins in the school cafeteria, but no signage reminding and encouraging students to recycle. So, students could design and submit recycling posters into the contest. We will copy and laminate the winning design and hang these posters around the cafeteria to encourage and remind people to recycle their soda cans, water bottles, and other recyclable materials.

SIMPLE SOLUTIONS FOR LONG-TERM EFFECTS

2018, Sacramento, California, USA

Emily Crofoot, a student at The MET Sacramento High School, wanted to not only educate her fellow students on some important environmental issues and how humans have impacted them, but to also present some simple solutions that would not require a radical lifestyle change and would have financial and/ or health benefits for students too.

She created a presentation entitled “Simple Solutions for Long- Term Effects” and presented it to 8 advisory classes at school. To encourage students to participate in the presentation/ discussion, Emily held a raffle. Students would receive tickets when they answered questions or contributed to the discussion. After the presentation, she would draw tickets and the raffle winners took home various sustainable goods, such as reusable water bottles, pencils made from recycled newspapers etc.

A fun way to engage students in an important topic!

Save the Bees & St. James School Composting

2018, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

In 2018, Sofia and Kristiane of St. James School in Calgary, AB implemented their project entitled “Save the Bees” throughout their schoolyard and adjacent to their outdoor classroom. While researching colony collapse disorder, the importance of protecting our native bee species, and their role in food production and ecosystem health, Sofia and Kristiane’s project helps support solitary mason bees throughout their community. They installed bee hotels in their school green space and planted native wildflowers and shrubs specifically to attract and support bee populations in the area. They then educated other classes at their school on these bee hotels and the importance of bees in our local ecosystems, encouraging others to follow suite and take action.

From the same class, Cole brought composting to St. James School to reduce food waste, provide nutrients for the soil in their gardens, and educate students and members of his community on the positive role composting plays in the environment and in our watershed. Cole also aimed to improve the mental health of students and teachers in his school by encouraging not only the use of their composter, but also the use of their outdoor classroom and garden space.

As the St. James Outdoor Classroom continues to evolve, students will share watershed information with their peers and educate them as to the benefits of learning in nature and natural spaces in an urban environment.

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.

The Bees Knees

2018, Greeley, Colorado, USA CO Bees Knees Presentation Student Action CO

S.Greta Krombholz, Greeley Central High School

Greta realized that everyone is being told that we must save the bees. However, most people don’t understand why this is a critical concern for today. Her goal was to educate the community about the bee problem and plant bee friendly plants. Greta developed a pamphlet with facts about about local bees and how to take care of the garden.

Bees Knees Greta and Cheque

She combined the pamphlet with a package of seeds for plants that are bee friendly and distributed these around Greeley. Each packet of seeds contained marigold, lavender, sunflower and poppy seeds for planting.

For a small budget of $165, Greeley will have gardens full of bee friendly plants this summer.