What conservation/green activities can my Junior High 'Green Club' do besides recycling?

Question

I want to start a 'green club' at the junior high I work at. Aside from encouraging recycling at school and home, what other activities can my students do?

Please answer with any viable idea. This is a low-income to middle-income school. THANK YOU!

Answer 1

the environment is 4 retards!

Answer 2

quit having you parets drive you to school and the mall, well at least carpool to the maximum number of people.  Raise some money for light switches that turn off if no ones in the room.

Answer 3

Plant trees.

Pick up trash around the school yard.

make left over paper/ thrown away copy paper into notepads for the teachers.

Answer 4

Simple answers are the steps awareness free energy research and promotion of these idea's are important also think about what you can Make or create with the trash we already have that cant be recycled always a good solution to the on going efforts prombly can find alot on the web about that even a trash sculpture showing the efforts your class made  could have a effect on the people who see it, could even get your local art teacher to prombly come and help or find a site to display it when your done

Answer 5

Walk to places that are close enough(If you drive to something 2 Blocks away, it pollutes the air when it is unnecessary.) Pick up trash along the side of the roads, and inside buildings, on the grass, over by the bleachers in BaseBall Diamonds and things, if you MUST drive, use a Hybrid, and.... thats all i can give right now. lol  

Answer 6

Get your teachers to cut back on photocopying. A typical middle school makes about ten copies per student, per day. Yikes! Much of that goes to the landfill because kids take them home and don't recycle. Get teachers to offer handouts via e-mail as an alternative for those who have internet access.

Turn down the heat. In winter, schools tend to turn the heat up well into the 70's. Petition the administration to turn it down to 62 and wear a sweater.

Answer 7

you should get everyone in the club to plant trees, use public transportation, and maybe change the ordinary light bulbs to the CFL ones.

*And always remember to reduce reuse and recycle

Answer 8

I will give you the same tips i have given someone else on here:

- Post signs throughout each and every classroom/staff room/library/etc that says something along the lines of "Before you leave for the night, make sure the lights and computers are turned off"

- Encourage your cafeteria to stop using Styrofoam dishes and instead try using the ones that can be reused and washed (if its possible to get funding)

- Try having a tree planting day for one day a month or so

- Encourage changing light bulbs to energy efficient ones in classrooms or hallways, if applicable

- Encourage reducing! Ask that a note be placed in the staff room around the photo copy machine to encourage printing on both sides of the page (which in turn reduces the amount of paper needed, and therefore saves your school money!).

- Bring up the idea of planting a natural garden in your school yard (if its possible). Anything can be planted, from beautiful native flowers from your city or area, to a vegetable garden filled with tomatoes, lettuce, etc (plus: if your school has a food and nutrition class, the kids can use the vegetables in the classroom; again saving your school money). You can raise money for the garden by hosting a "movie night" in the afternoon and playing environmental movies such as "An inconvenient Truth", "The 11th Hour" and "The Simpson's Movie".

-"Adopt" the street your school is located on and have a clean-up day once a month of the street.

For the past year, i have been volunteering at a local high school with their environmental club. The club is recycling batteries, which they then bring to the local waste depot and get money for it. I have also helped them get a donation of free CFL light bulbs, where students have brought in their old incandescent light bulbs in exchange for new CFLs. We are also in the works of starting a natural garden, where we plan to ask local stores that sell plants and such (like Canadian tire or Zehrs) to donate some perennial plants to us that we can plant once school comes around again.

I hope these suggestions help!

Answer 9

Hi Melinda,

Clap clap clap! that's me cheering you by having such a gentle and generous attitude about the enviroment.

I have a list that could be of help and come up with different ideas and encourage others, ready, take note:

"Wash clothes in cold water.

Hot water is unnecessary for most clothes. When needed, use warm water.

Fill your toilet tank.

Put a plastic bottle or two, filled with water and rocks, in your tank to reduce the amount of water used in each flush.

Clean your filters.

Clean the filters of your air-conditioners once a month to improve energy efficiency. While you’re at it, change your car’s filters as recommended in your manual.

Get a low-flow shower head.

Stop at the hardware store on your way home, and get a low-flow shower head. Takes a few minutes to install, and it’ll save gallons of water a day.

Lower your thermostats.

If you use heating, get by with less heat and wear warmer clothes. If you use air-conditioning, get by with less cooling and wear cooler clothes.

If it’s a nice sunny day, hanging clothes only takes a few minutes, and you’re using solar power instead of electricity to do the job. It also makes your clothes last longer.

Turn down your water heater.

Most people have their water heater’s thermostat turned up too high, wasting energy. Turn it down to 130 degrees, saving energy but still hot enough to kill bacteria.

Use CFC light bulbs.

If your light bulb burns out, replace it with a Compact Flourescent bulb (those spiral-looking ones). They’re more expensive, but if you just replace them one at a time, it doesn’t cost much, and the energy savings is great. And as they last longer, over the long run, you’ll save money.

Wash and dry only full loads of laundry and dishes.

Follow your community's water use restrictions or guidelines.

Install a low-flow shower head.

If you are not looking to change your car just yet there are a number of ways you can be more environmentally friendly and help you save money by conserving fuel.

Lighten your car to reduce weight by not carrying unnecessary items.

Cut your speed and stick to the speed limits

Drive smoothly avoiding heavy accelerating and braking.

When stationary for a long time, switch off the engine.

Closing windows will make the car more efficient by being more aerodynamic.  Remove roof bars when not is use also helps.

Make sure your tyres are properly inflated as under inflated tyres cause more resistance.

Where possible, walk, cycle or even use public transport.  

If possible lift share to reduce the number of cars on the road.

Try mass transit.

Millions of people use it, and it saves tons of fuel. If you don’t already, give it a try.

Unload your car.

Remove excess weight from your car (such as stuff that might be in the trunk) to reduce the amount of fuel you use.

Walk instead of drive.

Water grass early in the morning.

Reduces the amount of water you need to keep your grass looking fabulous.

Plant shade trees near your house.

It’ll take awhile before they can make a difference, but shade trees greatly reduce the need to cool a home. "

...and the list keeps going on, you should be able to add more ideas, just turn around and observe what's waiting to be done. Good Luck with your project.

Answer 10

Alot of teachers wonder about how to express recycle reduce reuse to their students. One great idea is to see if there is a courtyard or another garden area to plant trees and flowers to create a natural habitat for observation and study of native insects and birds. Campaign and collect aluminum cans from students to raise money for the class. Weigh, measure, and chart amount of cans collected as class activity. Chart income from recycled cans.

Delaware Solid Waste Authority has great ideas and lesson plans. www.dswa.com Talk about using products made from recycled products. (i.e. Marcal Paper Products. Local highway departments have "adopt a highway" where you could get your school name posted on the road sign.(This takes a while)  Also beach clean ups are a great idea if you live in sussex county, several of the smaller national beaches (big stone, bowers, etc.) have loads of trash and states do not clean them because they are federal beaches. Organize a class project where the student has to reuse an object to create another use for it. For Instance laundry jugs and caps for beach toys, bottle caps make colorful game pieces, create a board game using recycled cardboard and colorful soda caps. Play scrabble only using ecological vocabulary. Hope this helps! Kelly

Answer 11

Plant trees.

Go on field trips to promote wildlife awareness.

Encourage students to walk, carpool, or ride their bikes to school.

Encourage the use of CFLs, better home insulation, and other energy-saving tips.

Answer 12

Bike to school instead of taking the bus.

Answer 13

Kudos for you and your group!

Does your school have an area where you can plant a vegetable garden?  That would be cool.  If not, perhaps you can each plant a different vegetable at home and share the harvests.

Another thought is to look into cleaning with microfiber.  You will seriously reduce your use of chemicals for cleaning since microfiber lets you clean with just water.  

Answer 14

Hi--

You may find many ideas going to the "Project NatureConnect  (PNC)" website.

This  organization has many members that do work with schools and the environment.

Good luck and thanks for your interest in keeping our world healthy!

Marlow Shami, CT

Answer 15

An oldie but goody. Grow Free Green!

Have them go out and find new/baby/saplings of out side plants, trees. On one of (or more) their week-ends or afternoons.    My favorites are wild ferns and any type of trees. But I would not go with trees in the pine family.

Out side greenery is very hardy. If you have the room/space for each of your students to grow an door plant the air in your class room would become very healthy too.

And you could ask them for ideas.

Answer 16

You could begin a petition drive urging Al Gore to move out and close  his mansion that consumes more electricity than 20 average homes. And that's just electricity! The same home also uses $1080 per month in natural gas! And this is just one of his three homes!

Answer 17

Adopt a section of a road.  You just have to pick up trash along the strip of road once a month.  They provide bags, which you fill and leave on the side of the road for the highway/street department to pick up.  Contact your local street department or state highway department to see if they have that sort of program.  Here in Missouri, both do.  

Added bonus:  your "Green Club" gets its name posted on a sign on that stretch of road for your service!

Answer 18

Specifically at school?

Start a composting program. Have the students learn how to turn the compost into good dark soil for planting and then build a garden and teach then how to effectively grow plants using minimal water usage.

Get them to go around the school and point out things that can reduce energy: Turning off lights, removing extra vending machines, setting thermostats lower, etc.

Have them find out what efforts can be made in streamlining paper usage (ie electronic alternatives) or other consumables.

Have them cost out and compare current cafeteria meals and how much more it would be to alternatively use organic or locally grown produce and food; or have them map out where all the items from their food in terms of how far they have traveled and the carbon outputted to get to the school.

There are lots of ideas like this.. hope it gets a few wheels turning!