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.”

Smarter Sprinkler Systems

2017, Milliken, Colorado, USA

While researching ideas for the Caring for Our Watersheds project, Tyler, Patrick and Cameron discovered a gigantic waste of water at their high school. The district was watering the recreational fields around the school. They studied and analyzed the watering period, amount, location, dates, etc., and concluded the watering style was inefficient and wasteful. To solve this issue, they proposed the implementation of WR2 rain gauge sensors. These sensors would stop the watering of the fields when rain or soil saturation is abundant and additional water would be wasteful. These sensors would not only save water, but also save money for the school, making it appealing to both environmental focused administratio Colorado student project smarter sprinkler n and budget focused as well. The students worked with the school district and installed three WR2 rain gauge sensors which have reduced water usage by 30-50%. They will be monitoring the water usage during 2017-2018 and reporting back to the school administration.

St. James Outdoor Classroom

2016, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

In 2016, Melanie McCready and Emme Larkins of St. James School in Calgary, AB placed second St. James Outdoor Classroom Student implementation project in the 2016 CFOW contest, with their project “St. James Outdoor Classroom”.

While working with the school Ecoclub, Melanie and Emme realized that there were very few places for students to connect with nature and for teachers to provide learning opportunities in an outdoor environment. In an effort to solve this issue and help the watershed at the same time, Melanie and Emme worked with the Ecoclub to design an outdoor learning space. This learning space includes native plants trees and shrubs. Not only do these plants increase biodiversity in our watershed, they are also essential to many pollinators such as bees, hummingbirds and birds.

St. James Outdoor Classroom Student implementation project There have been picnic tables, garbage cans and recycling bins installed in the natural learning area, with plans to expand and continue to develop the area with additional natural features in the future. Research has shown that teaching outdoors makes educators more confident and enthusiastic about their work, and more innovative in their teaching strategies. By extension, schools benefit from the leadership and influence of their teachers who take students outside. Studies indicate that students that are given the opportunity to learn in a natural setting often score higher on tests, experience less anxiety and have more confidence.

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.

Tree Planting at Pony Express Elementary School

2015 Sacramento, California, USA

The MET Sacramento students Allison Goi, Mianna Muscat, and Justin Yu wanted to improve their watershed, while also providing a needed service to an elementary school is their area. As they reached out to local elementary schools, they found that Pony Express Elementary had formal plans to create a Nature Area, which would both provide habitat for birds, insects, and small mammals, as well as serve as an outdoor learning space for the students. To support and start the first phase of the project, Allison, Mianna, and Justin planted four different native species of trees in the designated area on campus. Caring for Our Watersheds project funds allowed them to purchase the trees and tools necessary for the work. As they planted while school was in session, they were able to interact with and answer questions from the elementary students and staff about the tree species and the benefit they will provide the campus and watershed. The were happy to be able to enhance their community in this way and kick-off a great project at a nearby school.

Lichens

2015, San Andres de Giles, Buenos Aires, Argentina

The focus of this project is to analyze the population of lichens found in trees within different areas of San Antonio de Giles town. The study of these lichens is important because they can be indicators of the quality of the air we are breathing. In order to define a parameter, the students plan to analyze the presence, or absence, of lichens in different parts of town. They also proposed an investigation on the density of the population of lichens and the analysis of the different types of lichens found. This analysis takes into account their color, appearance and the lichen’s grouping/type (foliose, fruticose, crustose). By analyzing the lichens the students are able to check and/or refute their hypothesis about the feasibility of solely using this method to monitor the quality of the air we breathe.