Vision

The students in our school ESD group are very passionate about climate action and what to promote this topic to the larger student body. Additionally, we are a LSF certified school and ESD is also one of our school and divisional priorities, so we want to ensure that sustainability is and integral part of teaching and learning at College Miles Macdonell Collegiate. Our ESD student leaders, volunteers and teachers worked diligently for 3 months to plan and implement a week-long event in the school centred around the theme of Earth Day from April 21-25. This is an annual event that continues to grow each year. The week included a thrifted fashion show, thrift shop, local food products sale, a Hackathon in which students used technology to solve climate related problems and finally a full day of workshops and speakers centred around the theme of education for sustainable development. This year we offered 26 workshops and had 2 keynote speakers that encompassed a variety of curricular areas including Social Sciences, Science, Foods and Nutrition, Human Ecology, and Physical Education.

Action

As part of our Earth Week events we offered student-centred DIY workshops that provided students with the opportunity to make their own jewelry using upcycled materials and bees wax wraps. Our workshops were facilitated by one of our ESD lead teachers and the other by a former student and ESD club member. The first workshop was entitled Bees Wax Wraps Make and Take. 50 students learned about the issues related to single use plastics and they were taught how to make their own bees wax food wraps that they were able to take home to use. The second workshop was entitled “Jewelry Making With Secondhand Materials. 80 students learned about up-cycling and then had the opportunity to make bracelets, phone charms and earrings out of materials such as thrifted and up-cycled beads.

Reflection & Celebration

The workshops were a huge success with our students being engaged in both the learning and hands-on aspects of the workshops. Both the teachers that had their students participate in the workshops as well as the facilitators, provided feedback on how focused their students were as well as how proud they were of their creations. Our annual Earth Week event continues to grow and we are so excited to see how engaged our student body is when it comes to issues related to sustainability.