Lester B. Pearson School Board’s Students Prepare for Earth Day with Innovative Environmental Projects

With Earth Day quickly approaching, students from many schools have been busily preparing for not only April 22nd but a week filled with activities dedicated to helping the environment. Here’s a summary of what will be taking place at some schools in honour of the day:

Riverdale High School – A teacher by the name of Brent Callahan and his Personal Orientation Project class have undertaken one of the most innovative environmental projects at the high school level. They are taking steps to help make their high school a more environmentally friendly building. This year, they focused on the cafeteria. Their goals were the following: - Establish a recycling plan within the cafeteria - Replacement of Styrofoam with a biodegradable equivalent, a produce named Bagasse - Establish a Composting program within the cafeteria - Form a community network to aid Riverdale to meet our environmental goals - Educate the student population in the use of these newly implemented programs

So far, some of their goals have been achieved but some are still an ongoing project. On Earth Day, Mr. Callahan and his students will be presenting their project to the school at 10:45 am.

Pierrefonds Comprehensive High School – The school has a new project called “Recycle a Bicycle,” which is an ongoing project. Students of PCHS have developed a community project that involves fixing and refinishing bicycles and then donating them to less fortunate families within the community. This project will have a significant impact on the students who are participating as well as the community at large.

John Rennie High School will have informative posters on subjects like recycling, composting and waste. The students will doing activities , which include sorting through waste to see how much can get recycled and water taste test to see if students can tell the difference between bottled water and tap water.

Children’s World Academy - Students in Cycle 1 get to watch a 15 minute presentation called “Being green/clean.” The small play was prepared by the school’s Roots and Shoot Club – Environment Division. Other classes will be coordinating school yard clean ups and a grade one class is starting the school’s first indoor composting class project.

Forest Hill Junior has decided to celebrate Earth Day over a two-week period. On April 22nd (Earth Day), the students will begin their day with an assembly where a penny drive towards adopting an animal at the EcoMuseum will be announced. After the assembly, students will be going outside to help clean up the schoolyard. There are also garbage-free lunch days scheduled during the two weeks.

Forest Hill Senior will have children weigh garbage produced during a regular lunch day. They will then weigh the garbage at lunch on Earth Day, which is a garbage-free lunch for the school.

Sherwood Forest Elementary School has four days of activities planned in honour of the planet saving day. On Monday, April 20th, the children are asked to wear green. Cycle one will clean the school yard and look for objects for an art project. On Tuesday, it’s a Waste Free lunch, Cycle 2 will clean the schoolyard and the lights will be turned off in class for 30 minutes. On Wednesday, they have a guest speaker, Park Warden Sheryl Ross who will educate the students on how to help the planets. And finally, on Thursday, it’s a Waste Free lunch, Cycle 3 will clean the school yard and there will be a Green story in the library.

The students at Bishop Whelan will be going to see the new Disney film “Earth.”

At St. Charles Elementary, Park Warden Sheryl Ross will be visiting the school on April 28th to tell the students how to “get motivated to live green.”

At Purcell Academy, a green committee has been formed this school year and their main goal has been reduce paper consumption within the school and their community. They are trying to have all future communication to parents be sent out through email in order to reduce paper. They are also in the process of restarting their composting process in the school yard with the grade six environmental club. On Earth Day, the school will shut off all their lights for 30 minutes in an effort to sensitize students to reduce electricity usage.

Source: Lester B. Pearson School Board