Green Efforts at My School

Is your school going green? Kid Reporters want to know!

Did you know that recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to power a TV for three hours?

I learned this recently at an assembly at my school, which was announcing a new eco program. Called the Green Challenge Project, the program is a fun competition with other local schools to go green.

I am in the fifth grade at Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland. I am proud of my school’s year around activities to go green.

In December, Bullis added 540 solar panels to the roof of the art center. These panels will provide 18 to 20 percent of the electricity the building will need in a year.

We also use wind power for electricity. Bullis has become partners with Clean Currents Solar, which is owned by Washington Gas Energy Services.

Fifth grade teacher Jennifer Houston told me that she thinks the school, including all of the students, works really hard on recycling. She thinks the Green Challenge makes “everyone a lot more conscious of turning off lights, of recycling, of protecting our environment.”

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership for schools ranked Bullis fourth in the country!

“I have never been to a school before that used all renewable energy for their school and I think it’s exciting,” fourth grade teacher Shannon Hieger told me.

Bullis also has a garden on campus. This garden produces vegetables for our lunch salad bar.

“We’re trying to create food for our kitchens so that the food doesn’t have to travel as far,” said Principal Amy Jones. “If the food doesn’t have to travel as far, then it’s going to help the environment.”

Ms. Hieger gave me an important reminder. “The resources for the Earth are so limited,” she said. “We need to be a lot more careful with what we have.”

I agree, how about you? Is your school going green? Any suggestions for how your school can help save the planet? Send you comments in the comment section below.

—Jonas Hosmer

PHOTO: Displaying one of the solar panels for the art center at the Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland, are (from left) Todd McCreight, Business Officer, Bullis School; Harry Warren, President, Wshington Gas Energy Services: Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Maryland's 8th District; Rob Garagiola, Maryland State Senator, District 15; Lee Keshishian, President, Clean Currents Solar, Tom Farquhar, Head of School, Bullis; and Jason Topercer, Partner and Installation Project manager, Clean Currents Solar. (Photo Courtesy Sherri Watkins)

School in a Garden

Miami elementary learns in outdoor classroom.

Students in the Pangaea Program at Sunset Elementary in Miami, Florida, have taken their classrooms outside.

Pangaea is Sunset’s gifted program for advanced science and math classes. In 2008, Sunset Elementary's Pangaea Program received a $10,000 grant from the Department of Education to create an outdoor classroom. We call it, the Pangaea Garden.

The garden was created to teach students about preserving the environment. The work was done by teachers, students, parent volunteers, and community members.

Some people may think that the Pangaea Garden is a boring place full of greenery. But the students at Sunset Elementary beg to differ. We think of this place as a sanctuary where children can truly learn about the wonders of life.

This fascinating place is full of native trees as well as exotic flowers. It also has a lovely pond with tons of vegetation and life hidden beneath the water. This is where the environmental activities take place during Earth Day celebrations.

Earth Day in Pangea Garden features multiple activities to teach kids about caring for the Earth. The children are divided into groups and each group is assigned to an activity. After a while, the groups rotate so that at the end of the day each group has participated in each of the games and experiments.

Some of these activities include learning about composting and how earthworms help the soil. To learn these things in a fun way, the students try composting, smell and pick herbs, experiment with and handle bugs and earthworms. We also test the pond’s PH levels.

Pangea Garden has been a part of the lives of Sunset Elementary students for two years now—and we are still learning from it!

—Maria Ordoñez

PHOTOS: (TOP) Students at Sunset Elementary in Miami, Florida, celebrate Earth Day in Pangea Garden, an outdoor classroom. (BOTTOM) Earthworms are part of the fun and learning in Sunset Elementary's outdoor classroom, called Pangea Garden. (Photos Courtesy Maria Ordoñez)

Go Green Lights!

Change a light, change the world with CFL.

My family decided to go green. We took out all of our incandescent light bulbs and replaced them with Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs (CFLs)—every bulb in the house!

Because we did that we are saving money, but more importantly we are helping save the planet.

CFLs are four times more efficient then normal bulbs and last 10 times longer, according to energystar.gov. If everyone in the U.S. started using CFLs we could retire 90 average power plants, according to the web site, which is a joint site with the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency. The site has lots of cool ways to save energy in your home!

According to energystar.gov's statistics, if everyone in the U.S. started using CFLs we could save enough energy to light 3 million houses for a year. It would also prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas from being released into the environment each year. That's the equivalent of the emissions from about 800,000 automobiles.

CFL lights cost more then normal light bulbs, but they last longer. That's why my family decided to go green by replacing all our bulbs with more energy efficient CFLs!

What is your family doing to go green for Earth Day? What about your school? Send us your stories and tips on how to help save the planet. Use the comment box below!

—Alysa Goethe

PHOTO: Alysa Goethe holds an incandescent bulb (round) in her right hand and a CFL (curly) in her left . (Photo Courtesy Alysa Goethe)

Turn Off Lights To Shine

Phoenix elementary reads by the light of the sun.

Kyrene De La Estrella, a public elementary school in Phoenix, Arizona, is doing its part in helping the planet, by holding a Lights Out Week the week of Earth Day, which is on April 22.

Kyrene de la Estrella will use only its skylights for the entire week. The only exceptions will be if a classroom’s skylights won't open and can't be fixed. Turning off the lights not only helps the planet, it helps the school save money by using less electricity.

You don’t need to turn off ALL your lights to help the Earth. Turning off only a couple of lights in the lunch room also helps, Principal Dr. Jeff Williamson told me. He said Estralla turned off just a few lunch room lights and the students didn't even notice. I certainly didn't and I eat there every day!

Estrella teachers and students are also limiting their use of paper. More than 30 million trees are cut down each year to publish books in the United States, according to eco.libris.com, a group that asks people to plant a tree for every book they read.

My school saves plenty of trees a year. All of the schools from the Kyrene District are having a contest to see who can recycle more during the week of Earth Day. Estrella happens to recycle every day, but contests are always fun!

“I think that the recycling contest is a really good idea," said one student from my school. " Instead of throwing away all of the paper [used during the day] you can reuse it.”

The winner gets a tree planted in front of the school, where all of the other competitors will see it, and sigh wistfully.

Some people think that helping the planet takes too much effort, but a fellow fifth grader disagrees.

“[Helping the planet] doesn’t take much effort," she said. "Because little things make big changes.”

By helping the planet, a lot of schools’ students will be working together for a common cause—to help the planet. That’s what Earth Day is all about! What's going on for Earth Day at your school? Use the comment box below to send your stories and tips!

—Maya Williams

PHOTO: A student at Estrella Elementary in Phoenix, Arizona, reads by the light of the sun. All lights are off at Estralla for the week of Earth Day, April 22, 2010. (Photo Courtesy Maya Williams)

Make Earth Day a Tradition

What is your family, classroom, school doing to help the Earth? Let us know!

When you’re in a brand new school, you get a chance to make traditions that continue for decades to come. That’s exactly what kids at Severance Middle School (SMS) in Coloardo are doing, building Earth Day traditions for future students.

Kids at SMS are doing something simple, yet amazing. They are celebrating Earth Day by forming a gardening and a recycling group. Both groups are only two meetings into their new projects, but they are already working hard to achieve their goals.

“We just had an announcement on the intercom about recycling,” Austin Ferrell, 14, told me.

Daniel Vargas, 13, explained how they built recycling bins for the school from discarded cardboard.

“We had to get cardboard out of the dumpster," he said.

When I went to talk to the gardening group, I was amazed to see the number of students involved. They met in the gym in multiple groups. Then we all went outside into the freezing wind to scout out places to plant gardens and trees.

I asked Connor Lowndes, 13, if he knew what they were planting yet.

“I know we’re planting trees that will grow well with not a lot of water," he said.  "They need to grow over the summer when we’re not here.”

I also talked to Principal Jay Tapia about his opinion of Earth Day.

“It’s an opportunity to teach people about the importance of the environment,” he said. “It’s just a great time to celebrate all of the natural resources that we have and the beauty of the Earth.” 

What is your family, class, or school doing for Earth Day? Use the comment section below to send us your Earth Day stories or tips!

—Topanga McBride

PHOTO: From left, Noah Landis, Tucker Wright, Tiger Browder, and Daniel Kraus show off their recycling signs for a school project. (Photo Courtesy Topanga McBride)

Chocolate Power!

Can chocolate help the environment?

Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH), the state’s largest electricity producer, and Lindt Chocolate in Stratham, New Hampshire, have come together to go green with chocolate.

Lindt will begin processing chocolate at its plant in Stratham by the end of 2009. The company plans to contribute its leftover cocoa bean shells to PSNH. 

PSNH is experimenting with turning those shells into electricity by burning them along with coal in their Schiller Station power plant in Portsmouth. Mixing a biomass product like cocoa shells with coal reduces the amount of carbon dioxide the power plant emits into the atmosphere.

PSNH and Lindt hope that by burning this mixture they might be able to reduce each of their companies’ carbon footprints. Both PSNH and Lindt hope that replacing a fossil fuel with a biomass product like cocoa shells will lead to greener power.

—Chloe Conway

PHOTO: Cocoa beans in a shell sits on a bag of already shelled cocoa beans. The discarded shell can be burned to produce energy. Credit: istockphoto.com

Miami School Has a Different Way to Help

St. Theresa Catholic School collects cell phones and empty ink cartridges.

What is your school doing to help the environment? Are they recycling, replacing light bulbs or fixing leaky faucets? Are there contests you can enter to promote water conservation? St. Theresa Catholic School in Miami, Florida, is one of many schools doing its part to help the environment. Here students help their school take part in a mission: a mission to help the environment.

St.Theresa Catholic School participates in a program called Funding Factory Cartridge Recycling Program. This program collects cell phones and ink cartridges in exchange for hardware and software technology products. St. Theresa School wants to keep its technology up to date. Every year, the school sets a new goal for how many cell phones and ink cartridges to collect.

The school also has an earth-friendly way of sending announcements home to the students: All announcements are made on the school’s web site. It's called the Brown Envelope. A newsletter for parents, the lunch menu, and a calendar of events are all posted online.

I have learned at my school that If we all work together, we can make the world a better place. I am proud to be a student at St.Theresa School.

—Daniela Bond

Photo: Kid Reporter Daniela Bond learns the importance of recycling at her school. (Photo courtesy Daniela Bond)

This School Cleans Up!

From butterfly gardens to recycling to clean up day, Hillside Middle School makes a difference one student at a time.

At Hillside Middle School in Manchester, New Hampshire, we have something called the Butterfly Garden. The garden, which is designed to attract butterflies, was created a few years ago by eighth graders at the school. Over the past two years however, the beautiful outdoor area has been forgotten. But not anymore!

Now the Student Conservation Association (SCA) is working with Hillside’s current 8th graders to restore the Butterfly Garden’s original beauty.

“We are trying to start a tradition where we are going to revamp this Butterfly Garden and keep it maintained so students can come out here and enjoy it,” said Ralph Protano, who is a part of the SCA’s NH Conservation Corps (NHCC). “Eventually we want to turn it into an outdoor classroom, that is our long-term goal.”

But for now, they are working on the beautification process.

“We’re just getting a place where kids can be excited about the outdoors right here on school grounds,” he said.

I am a student at Hillside Middle School where we are working to reduce, reuse, and recycle more.  At my school we have a recycling committee. So far, we have enforced a rule that teachers must turn off all computers, lights, and other electronic devises after school hours. We have recycling containers in the cafeteria for aluminum cans and water bottles. All paper and cardboard are placed in recycling bins and collected each week by the committee. Also, all the school’s lights are energy efficient fluorescent bulbs.

Along with these everyday efforts, my school is holding a clean up event on Earth Day, April 22. Students and Faculty members will stay after school and pick up trash on school grounds. We are also going to clean up the park across the street. 

When I think of Earth Day and ways to save our planet this quote always come to my mind: Nobody can do everything, but everyone can do something (author unknown). in other words, no individual can do everything, but each and every person can do a little something to make a difference.

—Elizabeth Conway

Photo: Hillside Middle School's compost bin, which fertilizes the school's butterfly garden. (Photo courtesy Elizabeth Conway.)

Earth Day Celebration in Manchester, New Hampshire

I recently spoke with Ralph Protano, a member of the Student Conservation Association, more commonly known as SCA. Ralph is a part of the SCA’s NH Conservation Corps (NHCC), a group of 30 people who live together for 10 months at Bear Brook State Park.

To Protano, every day is Earth Day—a day to can look around and see the beauty of our planet and the fascination of nature.

“It’s a Day for awareness,” Protano said.

In honor of Earth Day, SCA held its 5th Annual Earth Day Celebration at Veteran’s Park in Manchester, New Hampshire, this past weekend.

“This is an annual event and we’ve been trying to expand it each year,” Protano said. “We’ve put a lot of time into the event this year, working on making the booths more exciting, more engaging, and entertaining,”

The topics ranged from recycling IQ tests to making your own Earth Day buttons, homemade foods and goodies. Other booths offered information on how to build rooftop green gardens. Each booth was unique and taught you something about our planet.  I even saw a hybrid car and an exquisite Vintage Euro-Style inspired ‘BMW’ isetta car.  Long name for a car!

The event featured an open mic, where people from all over the city sang, danced, recited poems, and showed off their talent. 

Another entertaining act included a hip-hop group called “The Apostles.” There was also a raffle, which gave away some really awesome prizes. The proceeds went into funding the event.

The SCA 5th Annual Earth Day Celebration was a great experience and a total success.  It was an opportunity for the people in my community to not only celebrate Earth Day, but to learn more about our amazing planet and ways to Go Green!

—Elizabeth Conway

Photo: Kid Reporter Elizabeth Conway tries out a hybrid car at the SCA Earth Day celebration in Manchester, New Hampshire, April 2009. (Photo courtesy Elizabeth Conway)

T-shirts Can Help!

Eco Club in Illinois raising money to help environment.

It's Earth Day everyday for the Ecology Club at my school in Illinois. Maine South High School's “Eco” Club participates in many activities each year both in school and out.  Members are committed to helping make our building more environmentally friendly and making people aware of the difference they can make in helping the planet. 

Walking into any classroom at my school, you'll immediately notice multiple recycling bins, each with different signs above them that were made by the students to explain why recycling is important and what we can and cannot recycle. 

We have recycling bins in the cafeteria and near the gymnasium as well.  With more than 2,000 students, a lot of paper is used every day at Maine South. But if each student utilizes a recycle bin, we can make the Earth a little bit greener.

The Ecology Club also engages in many activities outside of school as well.  In recent years, members have gone on excursions to the nearby prairie to help restore the land. They have also participated in forest clean-ups, gone to state parks to learn about different types of wildlife, and participated in roadside trash pickups.  They even set up booths at multiple community events to help educate younger children about why helping the environment is so important.

In celebration of Earth Day this year, the Ecology Club will be selling T-shirts to raise money to purchase recycling bins for the hallways.  Students can proudly wear their shirts to celebrate a greener school thanks to the efforts of the Maine South High School Ecology Club.

—Allie Sakowicz