Water Conservation with Shower Start Adapters

2021, Sacramento, CA, USA

Jazmen Figueroa, Jose Benitez, and Alexander Martin, students at Grant Union High School in Sacramento, put forth a solid proposal to reduce household water use by promoting and distributing the Shower Start adapter to local households. This adapter is designed to reduce “behavioral water waste”, the water lost during the time frame from when you start the shower to when you get in, and may save up to 2700 gallons/ year and $75 in utility bills. After the team shared the potential water savings benefits of the device, they distributed 20 adapters (and installation instructions) to teachers and/ or students at school. They plan to follow-up with recipients to track water savings and further promote through social media.

Campus Garden Project

2021, Sacramento, CA, USA

In an effort to promote water-wise landscaping while providing a biodiverse habitat for local birds, Grant High School students Alex Thao and Harmony Xiong designed a garden project which included several different drought-tolerant species that would provide nectar and food sources for species such as Anna’s hummingbird and Western Meadowlark. In addition, their design placed the garden near the outflow of a downspout off the roof, thus utilizing and slowing the flow the storm water. The original design proposed the garden in Harmony’s yard, but they were unable to build it there. While Harmony and Alex remained in distance learning, their classmates, Brianna Garcia and Alexander Martin helped find a place at school that was quite suitable and put in the plants, which included a Crape Myrtle tree, several Salvia species and bunch grasses. The students also plan to add signage to the garden to educate others on campus about the plantings and their benefits. This is a great example of students working together to accomplish a project despite the circumstances of COVID-19.

Tree Planting Project

2021, Sacramento, CA, USA

Grant High School Students Wendy Mora Cervantes and Cherish Jackson proposed a Caring for Our Watersheds project that was straightforward, yet had multiple benefits. With their tree planting project, they were able to plant several different species of trees which would provide shade, help reduce the heat- island effect in urban areas, absorb CO2, and sequester carbon. As the students were not on campus for most of the year due to COVID-19, they planted these in their own yards. This will actually help ensure the trees’ survival as the students will be able to access and care for them during the first several months as they get established. Not only a source of shade and fruit, but also a source of pride as Wendy and Cherish beautify their neighborhood and make a simple, positive addition to their environment. Caring for Our Watersheds funding helped purchase the trees, soil, and basic materials for planting and staking the new trees.

Urban Tree Planting

2021, Sacramento, CA, USA

Anh Nguyen and Nicholas Vang, students in Grant High School’s GEO academy, are concerned about climate change. They live in a highly urbanized area, with little natural vegetation, and therefore wanted to add elements to the landscape that might help minimize the effects of climate change. They did some research and learned that doubling Sacramento’s urban tree canopy has the potential to remove thousands of tons of Carbon dioxide annually. The students decided to plant trees in their community, as they would absorb CO2, provide shade, and help reduce the heat-island effect. As they were choosing different species to plant, they decided to also include apple trees that would provide fresh fruit to residents as well as habitat and nectar for pollinators. The students also planned to reach out to the diverse cultural groups that they are connected to (Hmong, Lao, Vietnamese) to make information about tree planting and watershed benefits accessible, even to those who do not speak English.

Pollinator Patch Project

2021, Sacramento, CA, USA

Grant High School students, Andrea Sanchez, Janeth Guerrero, and Santiago Garcia, proposed the “pollinator patch” project, a garden at school in which specific plant species would attract pollinators and also be utilized by students in the Horticulture class. Thus, the patch would serve as prime habitat, but also an educational space for students in the GEO Academy where students could learn to identify species, as well as techniques for planting, harvesting, and bouquet design. The students also created a website that describes the plants, the pollinator species that would visit them, and horticultural processes. Their fellow students that had returned to campus, Bryant Vang, Daniella Rodriguez, and Fernando Montez, helped to plant and water the garden.

Carman Bike Racks

2020, Carman, MB, CANADA

Bike Rack

Ahmed, Colton, Gene, & Dorian are students from Carman, MB who wanted to take action on air pollution in their community. They thought that if there were more bike racks in their town, it might encourage more people to ride their bikes instead of driving. To start, they had a new bike rack installed at their school, and they plan to encourage students to have walk or bike-to-school days.

“Our project is on air pollution, and our goal is to make more bike stands so more people will walk and bike to reduce air pollution.”

SAVING SAINT CLARE STREAM

2019, CINCINNATI, OH, UNITED STATES
Stream
Abby Shores noticed a problem with a local stream in her community. The stream, which she calls St. Clare stream, runs through a three by one half block wooded area behind her house. It eventually connects to the Mill Creek. This area is owned by a local convent and includes a five-foot City of Wyoming easement. Unfortunately, it had been neglected due to its small size and isolated location. This lack of caring led it to be abused by illegal dumping, littering, and general misuse.

Abby created an immediate solution to turn the area from an abandoned dump to a community greenspace. She collaborated with local officials at the City of Wyoming to install a trash can on their portion of the property. This trash can not only prevented litter, but served as a symbol of her community and city’s commitment to the area. Because of her hard work the trash can has been put on the city’s weekly pickup route. She estimates the trash can will reduce litter by up to 56%.
Stream

The second part of her project was designing a cleanup day of the stream. This promoted community outreach and a greater unity among neighbors. She went door to door mobilizing volunteers and utilized social media to spread the word. During the cleanup day they removed almost 300lb of waste from the stream. This included everything from aluminum cans to iron construction beams. She hopes this cleanup day inspired others to hold events in the area. It showed how greater use of a space promotes long term environmental sustainability. Even though the stream is small, its revitalization served as an example to other municipalities.

Standing for Tomorrow

2019, Alexandria, Virginia, USA

Standing for tomorrow Chesapeake Bay

The presence of mold in educational facilities is a major threat to everyone who works or studies in these facilities. Using our data we add to the growing body of evidence of climate change. This evidence provides another opportunity to publicly demonstrate how youth are affected by this crisis. Using our voice as youth in order to impact a greater cause that not only affects one as an individual but the person’s friends and future students at the school allowed a personal side to a much larger issue. Supporting change through legal policy with scientific evidence learned in class as well as researched using skills studied in the Earth Force process empowered students scientifically and allowed for their growth.

The overall solution will be to work with local politicians to create a policy that protects students from the mold in public schools. This policy will force school boards to overhaul rules concerning mold in schools. The policy will also help to protect Alexandria’s art-deco style school buildings from rotting and deteriorating from the inside out.

AVS XXI

2017, San Andres de Giles, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Sagrada Familia Highschool of San Andrés de Giles: Valeria Manion, Milagros Maciel, Manuela Roldán, Jana Gold

This project proposes thinking and designing a classroom model with the characteristics that 21^st century education spaces should have. The project takes place in a real context in which the school must move from its current facility and has the opportunity to project the new education facility from scratch. The design of this classroom, taken as part of the whole school project, is presented by the 6^th form students as a challenge to incorporate some aspects related to the new methods and learning areas. So,as a starting point, they supplied information of sustainable architecture as well as light, sound quality, energy, the dynamics of classroom shapes and related green areas , with posters around the school; all things that can be applied in the new building.

implementation of AVS XXI

Reducing Greenhouse Gases Through Transportation

2017, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Reducing GHGs student action Manitoba

Everyone knows that car emissions pollute our environment, but Kennedy Link from West Kildonan Collegiate in Winnipeg, MB decided she could do something about it! By encouraging students to carpool or bike to school, she could decrease the harmful emissions that would otherwise be emitted by cars used to transport those students. She had new bike racks installed with an incentive program including prizes for biking, and was able to get her principal to offer “carpooling” parking spots at a discounted rate to entice students to use them.

“Carpooling and biking will reduce our school’s carbon footprint immensely, and is a step in the direction of preserving our watersheds. My proposal may seem small, but every person counts and I hope more and more people become involved.”