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Summary of OCDSB EarthCARE Activities for 2005/2006

April 27, 2006

The following is a summary of the information shared at the week of in-services for EarthCARE Teams in the OCDSB held from March 27 - 31, 2006. Where no school name is mentioned, several schools indicated participation in the activity. Where school names are mentioned, the lists are not exhaustive. The involvement in and successes of EarthCARE actions are impressive.

Ed Lamoureux, Supervisor of Operations

Ed Lamoureux, Supervisor of Operations, speaks with the EC Teams on recycling. He estimates the involvement of the EC Teams in the school recycling initiatives contributes the equivalent of $378,000 in custodial time.

Energy:

  1. LOCO Initiatives:
    1. LOCO marshals - students designated to turn off lights and computers at the end of each day
    2. Regular LO audits at Cedarview since the fall - improved from 36% to 6% on when not needed
    3. Skits
    4. Videos (@ Cedarview)
    5. Posters in many schools
    6. Songs @ Agincourt and other schools
    7. LOCO patrol - students monitor LOCO in rooms at lunch and after school (e.g., Elizabeth Park)
    8. Computers Off Police (COP) at Manordale
    9. LOCO signs in all classrooms
    10. TV Turn-off for exercise breaks and to save energy (tie in with Healthy Active Living)- Pleasant Park
    11. Weekly audits of energy use in classrooms - students trained - monthly rotation
    12. Assembly presentations - 3 x in the year - Dunlop PS
    13. LOCO talks in all classrooms by EC Team members @ Sawmill Creek
    14. LOCO campaigns 3x per year
    15. Light Switch Covers made in the school by students (3-dimensional at Cedarview)
    16. LO - Crystal Bay students do this each day at end of the day
    17. LOCO - students at Convent Glen are designated to turn off lights and computers at the end of the day
    18. At Adult HS, no lights go on before teachers arrive in the classroom and they stay off if not needed
    19. Project Porch Light at Nepean HS - students deliver free low wattage light bulbs to homes in exchange for their old high wattage bulbs
  2. Turn off the photocopier consistently at Fitzroy Harbour
  3. Research on Global Warming at Briargreen
  4. Building Windmills at Rockcliffe Park
  5. Norman Johnston Alternative - focus on use of natural light in classrooms
The Door Buster

"Door Buster" made in the school to remind students and staff to turn off their lights or "get busted".

Water:

  1. Quiz questions on water usage and waste
  2. Ryan's Well - raising money for wells in developing countries (e.g., Charles Hulse)
  3. Clouds from Canada - raising money fro drought victims in Somalia ($1 = raindrop; $50 = cloud; $500 = rainbow) @ Charles Hulse
  4. Water drop posters in washrooms - "Remember to Wash Your Hands and Turn off the water"
  5. OTLC - water initiative: drink tap water and avoid bottled water (independent analysis of water to convince staff)
  6. Water day at Elizabeth Wyn Wood - questionnaire to all classes - awarded prizes for the best recycling suggestions

Waste:

  1. "Door Busters"; door knob hangers; watt busters
  2. Composting - in classes; spinning composters; interior composters; build-your-own composter (partner with suppliers for class compost bins); vermi-composters
  3. SGC is painting old garbage cans to use to collect pop cans
  4. Recycling
    1. "Reuse Box" in every classroom to encourage using paper on both sides @ Manor Park
    2. Raking leaves for composting ("Rise & Rake" with School Council at Mary Honeywell ES)
    3. Collecting plastic containers for plants and birdfeeders @ Crystal Bay
    4. Clubs
    5. Recycled books and toy sale @ Le Phare raised $200
    6. Recycling cell phones, ink cartridges
    7. Recycling pop cans and tabs - sending the tabs to Clifford Bowey for wheel chair purchase
    8. Take home milk cartons for recycling
    9. Bayview peeled off the outer and inner layer of milk cartons to get fancy cardboard for making greeting cards
    10. Grades K-3 @ General Vanier - tooth boxes from yoghurt cups, pop tab necklaces, paper maché from telephone books
    11. Old light bulbs can be recycled at IKEA
    12. Batteries can be recycled at Staples or Radio Shack (JMSS collected ~7000 batteries for recycling)
    13. Get tulip bulbs from the Tulip Festival (previous year's bulbs)
    14. Made notebooks for teachers from scrap paper at Centennial; jot notes at Queen Mary
    15. GOOS paper at Jack Donahue (good on one side) - reused
    16. Queen Elizabeth PS labels recycling bins for content and location
    17. Glebe's recycling process is completed for 1500 students in about 2p0 minutes each week
    18. Clothing exchange at Canterbury HS
    19. Sir Robert Borden HS collected used course booklets for recycling
  5. Litterless lunches
    1. Range from every day all year (e.g., Mutchmor) to once a week to designated periods for litterless lunches
    2. Monitors check lunches
    3. Students train other students how to create a litterless lunch
    4. "Take it Home" - if it comes to school, it goes home; for students and staff; no garbage (e.g., at Henry Munro)
    5. "Pack In / Pack Out" - similar to take it home
    6. NO EATING OUTSIDE
  6. Contamination Assembly and Challenge - what goes in the garbage vs. what goes in recycling bins
  7. Litter Patrol - students clean the yard and classrooms at the end of each day @ Queenswood
  8. Earth Guardian - students collect debris from the yard - get thickets for the amount they collect to enter a draw
  9. Henry Munro has converted to "double-sided" attendance to reduce paper
  10. Park cleanup @ Fisher Park/Summit
  11. Lug-a-mug at all staff meetings at Glebe CI
  12. Lisgar has an electronic staff binder rather than hard copies and an electronic student course selection calendar
Stephanie Borrens (right)

Stephanie Borrens (right) shares the EarthCARE activities in place at First Avenue PS.

Cross-Curricular:

  1. Charity, International Activities, and Partnerships:
    1. Ryan's Well - raising money for wells in developing countries
    2. Clouds from Canada - to support drought victims in Somalia
    3. Help Lesotho - Riverview
    4. SOPAR - Munster
    5. Canadian Hunger Foundation - donkeys for Ethiopia (Munster and Frederick Banting Alternate)
    6. "Locks for Love" - charity for Cancer - teacher will cut hair if target met (SWC)
    7. Donating clothes to the Mission (Henry Larsen)
    8. Earth Angels @ Grant - make and sell birdhouses and donate the money toe the Wild Bird Centre
    9. Save the whales - Broadview
    10. Adopt a polar bear - Bayview - studied global warming and effect on Canadian north
    11. World Vision - pennies for poverty @ Jack Donahue ES
    12. SGC partnership with Home Depot and Home Hardware (story posted on EC web)
    13. Richard Pfaff Alternative organized a coffee house to support war children, sponsored a chimpanzee with the Jane Goodall Foundation's Roots and Shoots group, and supported the Pakistan Relief Fund
    14. Glebe CI - supporting the Great Bear Rain Forest
    15. Adult HS raised $10,000 for Tsunami Relief
  2. Earth Day and Earth Week Activities
    1. Spring cleanup
    2. Green your schools - inside and outside
    3. Gardening - e.g., Earth Guardians at Dunlop PS
    4. Mural of Tree with Buds that turn to leaves for every good EC action
    5. Brochure for in-school activities for all participants to select options
    6. Entries into Earth Day Ottawa contests
    7. Decorating grocery bags for use on April 22 at several LOEB stores @ Manor Park, Regina Street PS, Convent Glen
    8. Gymnasium display for all students on how to care for your school
    9. Environment Sale - flowers, etc., April 20th at Meadowlands
    10. "Pitch in Canada" Cleanup at Sawmill Creek, Terry Fox
    11. Cake raffle at First Avenue PS
    12. Junkyard Symphony on April 21st at Centennial
    13. Earth Day activities at Huntley Centennial to show students it is fun to participate in EC
    14. Clean up the Capital - Viscount Alexander
    15. Colonel By - every class will plant a tree at the school for Earth Day
    16. Lisgar & Canterbury - clothing exchange
  3. Question of the Week - selected from the EC web site; response box; draw for prizes from EC Kit materials (several schools have a version of this activity)
  4. School Organization, Student Leadership Opportunities and EC
    1. EC and Student Council combinations
    2. Partnering of elementary and secondary schools
    3. Specialty EC Teams - AV, recycling, composting, LOCO, Audit @ Henry Larsen
    4. EC reps in every class form EC Team
    5. EC Council (~20 junior students at Centennial)
    6. Partnering of classes (e.g., DD with senior class for recycling @ D.A. Moodie and Roberta Bondar)
    7. Student presentations to classes, School Councils, and staff on recycling, litterless lunches, Earth Day, etc.
    8. Student leaders monitor all EC operations
    9. Train the trainer models - students train other students to take over monitoring of various EC activities
    10. EC Team Executives - President and Vice-president @ Barrhaven presented at in-service
    11. Student announcement on PA - reminders, riddles, contests, etc.
    12. EC Bulletin Board - changed often; used for competitions, information, tips, etc.
    13. EcoRadio - once each week the EC Team has a "radio" announcement on the PA
    14. Students apply to be on the EC Team and to accept a responsibility at some schools
    15. "Environmentalist" in every classroom (Trillium)
    16. Regular EC Meetings - weekly in many schools; twice a week in some
    17. Team Earth, Team Fire, Team Water, Team Air @ Bell's Corners PS - each team does something once a month
    18. "Mr. Bob's" recycle and energy audit done each week at John Young ES - group changes monthly
  5. Curriculum Opportunities/Activities
    1. Arts
      1. Posters and stickers, all made-in-school with greater impact than commercially produced or shared stickers; bilingual ([e.g., recycling (many 3-dimensional posters to help students learn what is recyclable, LOCO stickers for switches and computers, the perfect litterless lunch, etc.)] (e.g., Robert Bateman, Parkwood Hills)
        1. The Chief Custodian at Mary Honeywell made a power point presentation of the posters for an assembly
      2. Wooden signs - to be posted at the 2 adjacent secondary schools to encourage reduced littering at Charles Hulse
      3. Performing skits and songs at assemblies
      4. PA Announcements - (e.g., trivia contest at Sawmill Creek)
      5. Environmental murals [e.g., Lady Evelyn - outside mural of 2 views of the earth (we care; we don't care)]
      6. Coasters - made from the bottom of pop cans; school logo printed on the coaster @ Christie PS
      7. Paper making - used their "new" paper to frame their photos to enter in the Expo
      8. Junk Monsters - made in many schools
      9. Enviro-friendly lunch awards made with juice can tops (Riverview Alt)
      10. Decorating grocery bags for distribution on earth Day (e.g., Manor Park, Regina Street PS, Convent Glen)
      11. Tracing "footprints" from scrap paper for tracking of the "Step into Reading" program at Centennial
      12. Display Case at Sir Robert Borden - EC Team created a water and composting facts display
    2. Literacy
      1. Reading: Principal reads in all classes ("Patty Pitter - She Hates Litter") @ Pleasant Park
      2. Writing skits, songs, plays (e.g., The Lorax play, "No More Trash" song) (examples @ Connaught, Agincourt, Queenswood, WE Gowling, Dunning-Foubert)
      3. Created an EC crossword @ Regina Street PS
      4. Research - collect newspaper articles on the environment and post them
      5. Study of fossils in EC Meetings - posting info learned in school @ Huntley Centennial
      6. At Riverview, their junk monster "speaks" at every assembly via a tape made by the students
      7. Students share energy consumption information with school staff at Manordale
      8. Recycling presentation in all classes by EC Team at Knoxdale
      9. Advertising EC in Hawthorne school newspaper
      10. Glebe EC Team puts articles in the community paper (Glebe Report) and has an EC rep on their Student Council
      11. Poster blitz on saving energy at hone @ Katimavik
      12. EC presentations to all classes at SGC by EC Team
    3. Numeracy
      1. Measurement & graphing of the class participation in litterless lunch activities (Connaught)
      2. Measuring energy use with a watt meter
      3. Garbage audit - dump garbage for one day in foyer or gym (on plastic sheet); sort; classes to view; take pictures; report to the school council and staff (lunch contents change when parents see what is not eaten) - link to global changes @ Jack Donahue
      4. West Carleton SS scores the recycling bins when they are collected each Friday afternoon - gives a prize at the end of the month to the best recycling class
    4. Other
      1. Battery Collections - used as a learning opportunity to teach about acid leaching into ground fill
      2. Partner with the Gloucester Food Cupboard - collect plastic bags, egg cartons, jars, etc.
      3. Greening the school - Herb, butterfly, wild flower gardens
      4. Integrated unit on global issues at Glashan PS
      5. At Glen Cairn ES, students raised caterpillars and released the butterflies on Terry Fox Day - one teacher went to Mexico to see the butterflies arrive
      6. Cambridge built healthy eating, a snack fair and litterless lunches into their School Improvement Plan
      7. EC fit with Science Wise - Workplace 4E curriculum
      8. Ecological footprint lesson and activity - SGC - posted on EarthCARE website
      9. Richard Pfaff Alternative EC Team is creating an Exposé - smoke-free outside area for students who don't smoke; Norman Johnston is creating a similar space
      10. Adopt a road - Colonel By
      11. Elizabeth Wyn Wood Alternative is creating a school garden with Evergreen
      12. Nepean HS is researching green roofs and roof gardens
      13. West Carleton SS is planning and hosting the EC Expo this year (May 2 at Confederation HS)
  6. SEEDS program (e.g., McGregor Easson)
  7. "Reach Out and Learn" - Sierra Club speaker, attendance at Peace Conference at SWC
  8. Songs
    1. This School is Your School (This Land is Your Land) - Riverview & Queen Elizabeth
    2. Clean Up the Earth 'til it Shines Like New - Queen Elizabeth
  9. Movies
    1. Movie Day - on biomes at Fielding Drive ES
    2. "Party Box" for winning class in competitions (video and popcorn)
  10. Grade 5 all completing the One Tonne Challenge at Featherston PS
  11. Clean Classroom Award
A 3Rs poster from Crystal Bay's EarthCARE Team.

A "3Rs" poster from Crystal Bay's EarthCARE Team.

Resources Mentioned at the In-Service:

  1. Patty Pitter - She Hates Litter (book)
  2. One Thing a Kid Can Do to Save the Earth (book)
  3. www.planetpals.com great site with activities and information for students
  4. www.ecokids.ca
  5. www.earthday.ca - Earth Day Canada's website and location of registration for "ecoactions"
  6. www.thekindnessprogram.org - teaches respect for all living things
  7. www.earthdaybags.org to get grocery bags for decorating for Earth Day distribution
  8. www.freecycle.org to get free items up for recycling (Canterbury found composters here)
  9. www.globalcommunity.org/flash/wombat.shtml video on one earth and respect - wombat speaks to kids
  10. http://r4.ucdavis.edu/kids/ activities for kids on recycling

Stories to be written:

  1. Trash to Treasure - Riverview Alternate
  2. Meadowlands Enviro Sale on April 20th
  3. SC and EC Team organization at Henry Larsen
  4. LOCO skit script from Heritage PS
  5. Storm sewer marking with City of Ottawa and Department of Fisheries - Manordale
  6. "Yard & Garden Outdoor Activity Guide" - Maple Ridge mapped garden, identified species and developed activities for Teacher use
  7. Earth Day mural of tree - buds blossom into leaves when good enviro action is done @ Agincourt
  8. Briargreen - research on global warming by grade 5 EC Team member - POSTED NOW
  9. Value of administration support - Dunlop PS
  10. SWC - "growth" of EarthCARE in the school over one year
  11. EC in-school web site at Forest Valley and play
  12. Grade _ EC activities at Mutchmor
  13. Cedarview video on LOCO - POSTED NOW
  14. Production of The Lorax at McGregor Easson
  15. Mural on global warming in the Arctic at Churchill
  16. "EarthCare" Bingo at Osgoode THS
  17. Video from Cairine Wilson SS on how and why to recycle
  18. OTESHA - Lisgar - Canadian project to create a sustainable future - student skits for presentation at other schools
  19. Gloucester HS - recycling video
  20. Frederick Banting Alternate - supporting a student in Vietnam
Peter Van Houten, EarthCARE Administrator, and Sheena Adamson from the OCDSB Outdoor Education Centres

Peter Van Houten, EarthCARE Administrator, and Sheena Adamson from the OCDSB Outdoor Education Centres, listen to the students sharing.

Use of gain-sharing dollars and EC Kit Materials:

  1. EarthCARE Scholarship for a graduating student to support a post-secondary program
  2. Trees for school yard
  3. Property improvements
  4. Transportation to field trips, EC Training, etc.
  5. T-shirts for EC Team - many schools made their own
  6. Lanyards used to hold homemade EC badges for identification of team members
  7. Quiet area - shade trees, benches, flower beds (trees donated)
  8. SEEDS registration (e.g., Manordale)
  9. Storm sewer marking with City of Ottawa and Department of Fisheries
  10. Gardening tools, plants
  11. Large recycling bins
  12. Prizes for enviro contests (e.g., pizza lunches, video party box)

Interesting Ideas/Connects shared among schools:

  1. Letters to the Web Master - for students only, in English or French - to begin spring 2006
  2. EC team leadership training at the Outdoor Education Centre (to be initiated fall 2006)
  3. OPIRG - Ontario Public Interest Research Group - Carleton University
  4. Songs to collect: Little Trees by Michael Mitchell

New Ideas for EC Kit Materials:

  1. Rulers
  2. Bike clips
  3. Erasers
  4. Skipping ropes
  5. Tote bags
  6. Not so fond of seed bookmarks

Challenges:

  1. Getting staff to participate consistently (in several schools)
  2. Sustaining student participation in some schools (particularly at 7/8)
  3. Getting the message out - school staff don't always communicate messages consistently
  4. Balanced day timetable
  5. Confusion re gain sharing dollars - where are they and do they carry over so they can save to get something bigger
  6. Hot lunches in elementary schools create a lot of garbage