sarachu3
Registered: December 2010
Posts: 1
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In my 10th grade year, I joined “People Speak”, a group that promotes eco-friendly practices and awareness of Climate Change. We were required to create and conduct a Climate Change awareness project that would encourage the public to become more eco-friendly in their everyday lives. We decided that we could encourage students and teachers at our school to take more eco-friendly types of transportation to and from school. This was an important project because there are about 150 students and teachers at my school, and if each one of them drove to school separately every day, the carbon emissions would be huge.
We began by taking a survey of the numbers of people who took a certain mode of transportation to school each day. We collected data that told us the main modes of transportation were taking the bus, driving and biking to school. A few students carpooled as well, but not many. After we conducted this survey and processed the data through tables, graphs and charts, we began the active part of the project in which we encouraged the school population to take more eco-friendly measures with their transportation. We created a raffle-system, where people who rode their bike, took the bus, or carpooled would receive one raffle ticket a day. At the end of the week, these raffle tickets were entered in a bucket for the raffle, and one student drew three names out of the hat. The three students each won a $10 gift certificate to the Student Store at our school. We found that as the week went on, more and more people were asking for raffle tickets, as they had decided to carpool, take the bus or bike more instead of drive. By the end of the week, more students had discovered a convenient, more eco-friendly mode of transportation than they had before, and had decided to permanently change their routine. Students were excited about the new transportation possibilities that they had not considered before, and many students began carpooling with students in their class who lived close by.
By conducting our project, we reduced our school’s original emissions by at least 20% at the time, and the number has decreased only to 15% since, and hence we reduced the cumulative yearly carbon emissions from our school.
This Apprentice Ecologist Project has increased my awareness of the transportation habits of my school, and encouraged me to become creative in my modes of transportation. I now carpool to school everyday with a full car of students and even one teacher. The project also inspired me to conduct more eco-friendly projects such as building three raised beds at my own house, volunteering with a local international refugee garden and installing a greenhouse and gardening program at my school.
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