a social justice program of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation

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Project Profile

Project Title:
Putting a Little Green in the Classroom
Initiative:
School Name:
Kate Chegwin Junior High School
School board / First Nations school jurisdiction:
Edmonton Public School Board
Project Theme:
Grade Level:
Subject Areas:
City:
Edmonton
Province/Territory:
Alberta
Community Partners:
We are planning on hosting an evening or weekend event that will showcase our classroom and the project that the students have undertook. During this event we will discuss the importance of recycling and reducing our impact on the environment. We will also show participants our garden and explain how easy and low maintenance it can be to have your own garden.
We have received Earthboxes through Alberta Agriculture in the past and will be using these to plant our gardens.

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Putting a Little Green in the Classroom

Our goal will be to make a classroom as environmentally friendly as possible. We want to encourage recycling of all products, not just paper. This will include old batteries, cell phones, and recyclable bottles. We will also be encouraging students to grow gardens. We have space available in our classrooms to have a garden project that will show students how easy it is to grow fresh herbs and other vegetables. To expand on this we will also have a composting bin in the class where students can put scraps from their lunch and over time they will be able to see how it decomposes and becomes an important part in the growing process by putting the nutrients back into the soil.

Update (April 13, 2012)

The Gardens are in full bloom in two separate classrooms. There are a variety of different gardens and many vegetables to be eaten. The students started the plants from seed and are in charge of watering them every day. Kids are excited to see how their plants have been growing and often hurry into the room each morning to see if there is a new vegetable to pick or bloom started. They are anxiously waiting the colourful salad that will be a product of their hard work.

Our recycle program is about to be in full force. With the week leading up to Earthday 2012 the students will be collecting old batteries, cell phones and CFL's. This has been integrated into our homeroom challenges to help get the rest of the school interested and motivated to help Mother Earth. Collection of bottles has been ongoing from the start of the project.

Update (May 9, 2012)

As part of this project our leadership students ran a campaign to recycle. It was done during the week prior to Earth Day 2012. Students incorporated our homeroom challenge competition to help motivate students to participate. Points were awarded to students that brought in old batteries, cell phones and CFL's. In total our school was able to gather 3143 batteries, 258 cell phones, and 24 CFL's. It was a huge success and we look forward to running the campaign again next year.