Vision

Having gone through most of our Geography unit (which expands on sustainability), our fluids and water unit in Science, and workshops about the land and water and the importance to take care of it with Indigenous guest speakers, the students were really starting to realize the importance of keeping our water clean. They realized that to keep our water clean is to keep our land clean, which in turn helps us live longer, healthier lives and keeps our ecosystems happy, and, no matter what happens in one area in the world, it affects another and that our ecosystems must be sustainable so that we can be as well. This led to workshops with LSF and, finally, our application to receive a grant for our Action Project (Waterdocs at School).

We wanted to focus on something relatable and local for our action project. We have already taken nature walks and even a Truth & Reconciliation: Signs of Spring, Reciprocity walk with our school’s EGELT to the local pond and surrounding area many times and knew this would be a good spot to focus on. We learned from Moses Lunham of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation how to draw Mother Earth in the shape of our great lakes and shared our knowledge with our peer buddies (kindergarteners) each and every Friday all throughout the year. This project very quickly became very important to all of us because we noticed how much garbage was around the pond, how many animals/insects were constantly around this area and how we knew nothing about where this water was coming from or going and did not know what we could do to help cause a permanent change for the better.

Action

We completed many of the youth forum workshops and decided to request a grant on the website to complete our own action project. We watched as many videos of past winners/nominees for such projects and completed all of the worksheets that are in the action project guide PDF.

We got our hands dirty by collecting water samples, testing the bacteria and PH levels, cleaning up garbage around the pond, and creating a birdhouse for our school so that the animals can have a clean area to eat instead of all the garbage at the pond.

We were citizen scientists by testing bacteria and PH levels in the water, tracking the water samples from last October to now (seeing if they got dirtier or cleaner), and bird watching by the pond to see what type of wildlife comes around.

We made consumer choices by creating a time capsule for the entire school to sign, while they decorated little wooden animals to drop in while they promised to keep our local water clean and let the school know ways they can help through announcements and flyers around the school.

We made lifestyle choices and encouraged the school to do the same by implementing ‘trashless Tuesdays’ (not bringing anything that can be thrown away on Tuesdays), ‘ban the bottle pledge’ (where everyone signed a pledge to ban plastic bottles), created a battery recycling bin (where students/staff can bring their expired batteries), created a GOOS (good on one side) bin for each class, as well as marker disposal bin (so we can dispose of markers that have run out of ink properly).

We educated and informed our entire school community. We sent out flyers via email to our whole school community (parents/guardians) that explained what we learned, what our action project is all about, and how they can help, along with some shocking statistics about our local pond (PH level, how much garbage we collected). We educated staff at a meeting where one grade 8 student put together a slideshow about everything we have learned and how they can implement such a project in their class. We educated our junior/intermediate classes by creating a Google Form to see what they knew about the pond, and then made announcements for them to check out our flyers around the school, and finally used the same Google Form a week later to see what they learned. Two grade 8 students created a presentation for our kindergarteners and used a full period to teach them about what we have learned in terms they would understand, along with songs, videos and a question and answer period (this included the importance of taking care of our water and ecosystems). Finally, some grade 8 students put together slide decks on Google Slides for the primary division, a separate one for the junior classes, and one for the intermediates! This way we were able to reach every single person in our school community.

We were able to engage in political action by emailing and calling the mayor of Brampton and talking to other water experts and Brampton environmental organizations about how we can do better in keeping our water clean and getting the community more involved. Our organizations also taught us about where our water comes from in our tributaries and where it ends up. Our wastewater treatment plant field trip also helped us understand how our water is treated, how to keep it clean, and all the parts of the process of keeping our local water clean.

We had goals in mind for all of the above actions and crossed them off as we went along, so we were aware of our process. We made sure things were in happening in sequential order, for example, we would put up the flyers around the school before confirming what the junior/intermediate classes learned, or we tested the water for the PH level and bacteria level before making our flyer to tell our community how dirty or clean our water was. We did our research in our science and geography lessons and before we even began our action project, and then spoke to experts, surveyed people in the community and collected our own data to show the community what we learned. We made sure all of our questions were answered before we made presentations for students in the school and for the staff.

We found that there was the presence of E. Coli, coliform, salmonella and many other bad bacteria in our water, that our water was very basic, and that it was not healthy for our aquatic life, and we filled three full garbage bags of garbage from the pond.

Reflection & Celebration

We included all types of media in our project and our video. We used a green screen to record as a news broadcast, we used pictures, videos, google forms, google slide presentations, announcements, songs with our kindergarteners, art with our time capsule/pledge and our bird feeder! We absolutely have sparked conversation amongst our whole school community, as we received letters from parents/guardians thanking us for our work and asking for more information, and every teacher has shown their class our slide decks that they made and complemented our grade 8s on how hard they worked on this project. Many staff are asking our grade 8s how they can do their own action project next year! We have put in a request to our mayor to add more garbage bins around the local pond and park, as there is only one in a very large radius. We have measured the amount of plastic that each class has brought in over the course of the year since implementing the ban on the bottle pledge, and we can see the number of people bringing in plastic dropped significantly, with a 50+% decrease.

Each student worked well with their given assignment and signed up on what they wanted to do based on interest and skill level. As the teacher, I did all the guiding and none of the work-the kids did everything you see in this action project!

This action project and the funding we have received are truly life-changing and a huge blessing to our grade 8s! There was no way we could have done any of this without you all. The workshops, activities provided, details are given, and support we received the entire way through this project was extremely helpful. The students really enjoyed being given a lead role in their own action project, they loved working with the staff and students and were really engaged, as it was a relatable and close-to-home issue that they could help solve themselves! Everything was simple to follow along with and really made a big difference in these kids’ lives. The students are asking how they can complete their own action project in high school next year, staff are asking them how they can complete this next year with their new students, and evidence of our action project is all over the school. From the eco-initiatives (trashless Tuesdays, ban the bottle pledge, battery collection, etc.) to the bird feeder and time capsule with the whole school’s promises, the students in this community will remember this project for the rest of their educational career and beyond! Thank you so much for this opportunity, and we can not wait to do it all over again!

Links