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City Middle School
Gateway to Grand Learning.
This school year project expanded upon the lessons learned from the previous year. Seventh and eighth grade students watched the documentary Flow and read the book, A Long Walk to Water. They completed their own long walk, carrying one-gallon water jugs two miles to the local park and back in order to water their school's garden. After this experience, student groups created a range of projects for which they were evaluated for the class, including planning a school-wide movement to ban plastic water bottles, creating a to-scale replica of the local watershed, and raising funds to purchase water purifiers.
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East Rockford Middle School
Tackling Invasive Species.
This effort focused on invasive species present on the Forest Hills Eastern campus but also included water testing and river clean-up. Students launched their work with a River Clean-Up on September 18 in Ada. They plan to continue the water testing project indefinitely. The previous year, students had resolved to remove invasive species from the campus and restore native vegitation. Through a partnership with Ada Township Park, students learned to identify, map, and remove invasive plants, and learned about strategies to reintroduce native species into the area. Students decided to use a campus courtyard to begin their reclamation project. First, students went to Ada Parks where they removed invasive species at that site. Then they returned to their campus and mapped out and excavated a series of small trails through the on-site courtyard. Finally, students implemented a series of days where they pulled as much spotted knapweed and garlic mustard as they could and planted native plants in the courtyard. Ada Parks, local businesses, and master home gardeners worked with students to acquire the native plant seeds. They then took the garlic mustard and used it to make a series of foods, such as hummus.
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Forest Hills Eastern Middle School
Storm Water Management.
Students brainstormed on topics to address for the year and voted on the top choices. As a result, they chose two focus areas. First, they decided to educate the community about how to best manage storm water through the use of rain barrels. The students hosted a rain barrel building party and found creative ways to distribute them to community members. The second project involved creating a native garden. Students began work on building the native garden on their campus, teaching others how to build one, and promote this practice to the community.
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Kent City Middle School
Students in 7th and 8th grade have implemented a school-wide recycling program and have recruited a waste removal provider to work with them to establish a recycling service at the school.
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Lowell High School
Exploring water and soil issues due to food production and population growth.
One of the greatest factors impacting water is soil and food/agriculture. Lowell High School students examined the ways in which farming affects water quality. Biology concepts were brought to the problem of water usage and population growth showcasing individuals impacts on water and soil issues. Students assessed community perspectives of various constituents as well as water and soil quality issues locally. In addition they worked to remove non-native and invasive species from their food web designed and setting up plantings in their greenhouse in order to grow food for their prom.
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New Branches School
Invasive Species Study
During the previous year's work with water, students began to notice the various types of lifeforms they were encountering in the streams and rivers. One of these species was the round goby, an invasive species. The study of invasive species carried over into the current school year, where students became more involved with learning about invasive species and how to control them. Students took field visits to the Soo Locks to study how invasive species get into the Great Lakes. They also visited John Ball Zoo to talk to experts about species migration. They then looked at the problem at the regional level, visiting Grand Haven, where the Grand River empties into Lake Michigan, and then at the local level, where the Grand River passes through Grand Rapids and where their local creek, Plaster Creek, begins to enter the Grand River. Students took water samples in Plaster Creek with the assistance of WMEAC and took a fishing trip to see how many round goby they could catch. Students also studies zebra mussels. Students identified Plaster Creek as a highly polluted watershed and will use this information to help them focus on a project for next year.
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The Potter's House School
Bottles Be Gone / Mico Businesses
Students There were two different projects. The first focused on water stewardship. Students began by studying various water issues in class and watching the documentary, Flow. They then narrowed down their project to focus on implementing an anti-water bottle campaign at the school. The class began by focusing on their own water use and strengthened their goals and arguments in order to advocate for their cause. Students worked with the school's development office to find ways to reduce the amount of water bottles they use, since most disposable water bottles were used for visitors. They were able to purchase reusable steel water bottles with the school's logo to give out instead. They then recorded a PSA that they posted online, which depicts the wastefulness of disposable water bottle use, and installed a water bottle filler on their drinking fountain, which indicates with a ticker how many water bottles are saved with each fill-up.
The second project focused on soil and microloans. This directly linked with the curriculum at the time. They began by investigating the idea of a microloan and how it helped people and groups around the world. They looked at local churches who adopted this model for people in other countries. In order to fully grasp the concept, each student received a microloan to purchase a type of seed. Some students grouped together to increase their collective returns while others went forward individually. Students learned about soils and cultivation of crops, and how nutrients and sunlight affect the growth of plants. A small greenhouse in the classroom served as an incubator during the colder months. Students were expected to repay their loans and created marketing campaigns to do so. They also calculated their interest and repayment plans. These plants were then either sold or were turned into manufactured goods such as strawberry smoothies or baked goods.
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Sparta High School
Students analyzed the human impact on Nash Creek, looking at invasive species, trash, and recycling in the area. There were two projects for the year. The first sought to improve recycling at the high school both in the cafeteria and in classrooms. Students did research on appropriate bins for the school, which bins were more "visible" than others, and what locations in the school were most likely to be effective placements for the bins. Students implemented a school-wide education campaign that focused on promoting the bins and educating students on proper use. They teamed with students in a contained special education class for the cognitively impaired to regularly monitor and change out the bins.
The second project focused on Nash Creek. Students surveyed the creek and found that part of the creek's path crossed the school's cross country trail. In this area there were multiple concerns, including illegal dumping and underbrush impediments. The students contacted Tesa Tape Inc. without any prompting and created a strong partnership with the company to address some of the issues surrounding Nash Creek. Students looked at water quality of the creek, identified and repaired blockages (particularly a drain where the creek goes underground. Tesa Tape provided funds to help students remove fallen trees, cement pieces, and garbage. Student took pictures and video, wrote brochures, and carefully documented incidents and locations of dumping. Advanced biology students tested Nash Creek at three sites and planned to implement this annually in order to monitor the health of the stream.
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