Highlights from Hilson P.S.'s EarthCARE Activities

Sally Baycroft is the Team Leader for Hilson Public School. Her team consists or Heather Epton (EA) and Wendi Cibula (teacher) and 15 hard-working students from grade 1 to grade 6. They are all very proud of the work that the EarthCARE Club has undertaken this year. They have had a major focus this year on LOCO. The Team placed reminders on the walls, computers and school newsletters.

As you enter the school you can't help but notice the milk carton bird feeders that are placed around the school grounds. They have been fortunate to have student catalysts from Nepean High School work with the school EarthCARE Team to implement their EC initiatives.

During the week of May 16-20, the school has a focus on Litterless Lunches. An article went out in the monthly newsletter to parents to inform them of this activity. Students were encouraged to bring Litterless Lunches everyday. About 150 students eat lunch in the gym at Hilson. On the first day 23 students had met the criteria and on the second the number had jumped to 53. By the last day there were 60 litterless lunches in all! All of the children who brought litterless lunches placed their names in a daily draw. The names of five students were drawn and awarded one of the items from the EarthCARE kits provided in the fall to each of the schools.

The Hilson EarthCARE Club recently completed an activity with Solar Energy beads and discussed the ozone layer. They slathered the beads with different SPF sunscreen, from #6 to #30. They labelled the samples and took them out into the sun. The beads with the #30 SPF sunscreen did not change colour at all, the untreated beads and the #6 SPF changed immediately. The students then concluded that higher protection is better. It was a great way to educate the kids about UV rays and the importance of decreasing green house gases.