Vision

We did a lot of research into water and water issues locally and beyond. Students chose to make a documentary on microplastics. This was an issue important to the class because they felt there is a lot of plastic pollution in the community, and they were really worried about the effects of this on the environment, the local wildlife, and themselves. We planned to enter the documentary in the Water Docs for Schools competition, as well as share it on Facebook for the whole Pikangikum community to see.

Action

We started to plan an Earth Week event to run for the whole school. Students worked on a project called Eco Solutions, which focused on researching companies and researchers that were fighting against plastic by creating innovations. Students also started to create an interactive art piece to display at the event. They gathered over 50 egg carton flats to create a giant Earth, and taped them to make a ball. Then they covered the ball in paper mache and painted it with the map of the globe.

At our Earth Week event, we had the Giant Earth displayed in the center, on a recycling bin. Students from 8A encouraged students to pick up the Earth and hug it as well. There was a poster beside where students could write on sticky notes why we need to care for the Earth, and what we can do to take care of it. We also had our research boards put up on display, along with reports on animals from around the world that students wrote.

After this, students got to work on the microplastic documentary. An 8A student came up with the opening idea for the documentary, and then students built the rest of the script around that. Over the course of a couple weeks, students worked to record sound bytes. This documentary was submitted to the Water Docs for Schools competition, posted online for the whole Pikangikum community to see, as well as shared with our partner school in Pickering, Ontario.

Reflection & Celebration

At our Earth Week events, about 220 students were impacted by attending the event, and about 40 teachers. We also posted our documentary in our Facebook group 8A World Changers, and the Pikangikum First Nation community Facebook group – and over 2000 community members saw our work!

The 32 8A students were very hard working and motivated on our water inquiry process over the year, and were very dedicated to environmental actions all throughout the year. Our Water Doc – Let’s Fight Microplastic – featured snapshots of all of 8A’s action projects, research, and events. Our documentary is a true celebration of our year of hard work and sustainability actions together, highlighting the deepened knowledge that students now have.

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