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Back to HomeFeature Article - March 8, 2012 Go Green Tips at NAECby Julie Druker
Photo: Ms Buck's grade 5/6 students share their Go Green Tips at NAEC.
Students in Ms. Buck's grade five/six class at the North Addington Education Centre in Cloyne are sharing their newly acquired Green knowledge with the wider school community, with very positive results. For the last few weeks the students have been studying energy conservation and other related topics in their science unit, including non-renewable energy sources, and they decided to share their ideas for changes that they and others could make in their daily lives to conserve energy, with a focus on the idea that every little bit helps.
The project for each student in the class was to research and then write up one single “Go Green Tip”. The students first discussed the possibility of designing and creating posters about their tips as a means of getting the information out to the school community but later came to a consensus that posters would in themselves not be the greenest way to go about it. Instead, each of the 25 students simply composed a short tip and for 25 consecutive school days each of them will have a chance to read their tip over the school's PA system.
These "Go Green Tips of the Day" are not only a way for the students to share their understanding of energy conservation practices but also to encourage conservation both in the school and at home. “The students have really learned a lot about energy conservation and they are interested because the focus here is on real life,” Ms. Buck said when I visited her class on March 3. “These students are the future and they need to know this information. By instilling it early on they can not only begin making a difference now but will also pass the information on. They will be more likely to take these ideas with them into the future. Our hope with these tips is to encourage these students to make these small changes and by sharing these tips with others together we can all make a bigger difference in the future.”
Grade six student Stephen Humphrey's tip reads: “Do you play games like Xbox 360 or PS3? Well, if you do, make sure that you turn off the game system and the TV when you are done.”
Selena Pelicos' tip is “To Go Green-Stay Clean! Instead of throwing away all of your plastic items, glass and papers, try recycling...plastic takes over 500 years to break down.”
Cassie Parks-Delyea's tip: “When you start to grow out of your clothes, don't throw them out, give them to your younger siblings or other family members or to Good Will. In many cases clothes and other goods are shipped from other countries and the fumes from transportation release green house gases that can lead to global warming.”
Brock Elliott's Tip: “In the mornings, only let your car warm up for about three minutes instead of 10 or 15 minutes.”
The school overall is benefiting from the students' efforts. Melissa Randle is the head Eco teacher at the school and oversees the school's high school-aged Eco Team, who will again this year be participating as one of Ontario Eco Schools. She said, “This kind of project, which promotes energy conservation and which covers green energy curriculum, will not only help us in our rating as an Ontario Eco School but it is also a great way to get the message out to younger students and to start them thinking about energy conservation.”`
Ms. Buck's class wanted to take their Go Green Tips further afield into the community and they felt that sharing their project with the local newspaper would help them to get their message out to an even larger audience in the local community. Way to Go Green NAEC!
