Vision

Having students develop a love of the outdoors through outdoor immersion excursions, our vision is to create a desire in students to take action in fun and interesting projects that have an impact on sustainability goals.

Action

Action Project Story – What did you do and why?

In September of 2024, Carbonear Academy was awarded the opportunity to bring five students to the Learning for Sustainable Futures – Climate Conference taking place at the Johnson Geo Centre in St. John’s, NL. Afterwards, the conference attendees took their project-ideas and plans back to the school and discussed their topics with their lead-teacher. Working with the lead-teacher, all conference attendees, and approximately 125 other students participated to varying degrees in the action-projects listed below. The whole school will be viewing the multimedia presentation of our action-project story called: “Tip It! (A Balance Song)”.

1. We doubled the number of classes using waste-paper recycling containers that diverted paper-waste from the ‘trash’ stream into the ‘paper-recycling’ stream.

All conference attendees recognized our school could do more to divert paper from ending up in the trash. Most classrooms were not recycling paper. The group quickly settled on the plan to divert more paper into the recycling stream. This plan was deemed an important and easily attainable climate action project that we could focus on. Arrangements were made and the school’s existing paper collection program was expanded. To collect the paper we ‘upcycled’ other containers, instead of buying new recycling bins. We made sure that all classrooms were aware they had new options for paper-waste. Consequently, we substantially reduced the amount of paper heading into the waste stream from the elementary and junior-high corridors. We hope to expand this program further next year.

2. We ‘upcycled’ some of the waste-paper that was collected and experimented with making and our own ‘homemade craft-paper’ to be used later for art projects.

The lead-teacher had a plan to upcycle some of the collected waste-paper and see if it could be remade into usable ‘craft’ paper for art projects or other purposes. Therefore, the two grade seven and and two grade eight Home Economics classes began investigating how they could make quality ‘homemade’ paper. They spent multiple sessions, revising and improving the recipe and technique. Some paper turned out like cardboard while another group’s recipe created some thin and flexible paper. Eventually, they had some good quality paper and an efficient process. There became a bit of a competitive element when different classes tried to outperform the previous class’ production rate. This project required that each group of students build their own wood frames that would support the screen and capture the paper pulp. They used hand powered tools and then applied the appropriate processes to create ‘home made’ craft paper. This project will be refined and expanded next year as well.

3. We recorded an original song and then created a music video to promote our Climate Action Story.

After the LSF conference, our attendees were quite interested in making some kind of multimedia production highlighting the climate action project that our school/group would embark on. Fortunately, at our school we have had a long-standing-yearly talent show. A few students from that event were recruited to perform and record a song that would be used as the soundtrack for the video project. One conference attendee took on the bulk of the preliminarily video-editing, and the lead-teacher fine-tuned it. The “Tip It” song uses the melody to “Tipsy (A Bar Song)” with revised lyrics created by the lead-teacher, Peter Ardis. Students had their input into draft versions and helped with some rhymes and ideas. Eventually the final lyrics were given to a few talented singers and they spent a few months practicing and rehearsing. We recorded the soundtrack on an iPhone live in the stairwell with the best acoustics in the school.

4. Lastly, the school community supported a large group of classmates in grade seven to experience a three-day, two-night, phone-free, outdoor immersion experience at Echo Pond Environmental Centre.

At Carbonear Academy, we have another long-standing tradition; taking the grade seven classes on a two-night and three-day excursion to the local outdoor school called ‘Echo Pond Environmental Centre’. We continue this tradition, in part, because we believe that for students to choose to protect the natural environment, they need to establish a strong connection with themselves and others within it. This end-of-the-year school trip is an anticipated right-of-passage for the upcoming younger grades. Thanks to local donors and parent volunteers we are able to take any student who wants to come along. Planning for future excursions to Echo Pond will include having students spend a longer time there. Any funds received from future climate action projects will go towards offsetting some of the costs of the Echo Pond excursion.

Reflection & Celebration

The whole school will see the final project song/video.

One grade-seven conference attendee’s reflective testimonial on Echo Pond:
“I was so nervous to go on this trip; scared, even. There were times I thought about not going at all, but when we finally showed up on the bumpy gravel road, … it was perfect. From the counselors that I bonded with, to the beautiful boggy forests, it was amazing. Even though I was horrified at first, when push came to shove, Echo Pond was more than likely the most beautiful, peaceful, and intriguing trip I’ve been on. I 100%, from personal experience, think that all seventh graders should get a chance to go on this trip one year or another.”