April was definitely an exciting month for going green at Robious Elementary School. Our recycling program continues to be an amazing success: our students have diverted more than 500 pounds of classroom waste from the landfill again this month! The year to date recycling total exceeds 3,500 pounds. Remember, this is just classroom recycling. Although we’re not weighing the recycling coming out of the resource rooms, the cafeteria, or the front office, those spaces are recycling, too. According to TFC’s estimates, we’ve probably recycled closer to 7,000 pounds this year, school-wide. Earth Day was a big event at Robious Elementary this year. In fact, we celebrated it all week long, in tandem with Turn off the TV Week. Our students grew a “green commitment” tree, and brought in leaves stating what each family is doing at home to go green, participated in the “green hour” challenge, dressed in green spirit wear, participated in a “walking bus” day, and closed out the week with a fabulous potluck dinner at
Robious Landing Park. We hope your family was able to participate in some or all of these events! On April 28, I had the pleasure of speaking to the 4th graders about “green building”. Much like my experience back in February with the 3rd graders, I was absolutely amazed by their depth of knowledge and the insightfulness of their questions. Part of our discussion was about motion detectors, and how different motion s e n s i n g t e c h n o l o g i e s worked. When we started to talk about ultrasonic sensors, they shared a bit with me about how echolocation works and which animals use it to hunt and communicate. Wow! They were clearly there to get certain information, and I sure hope I lived up to their expectations. During the evening of April 28, Julia Lain (3rd grade), Austin Tuck (4th grade), Casey Perkins (assisted by Megan Gardner) and Will Hostetler (5th grade) eloquently addressed the School Board, along with students from Bettie Weaver ES and JB Watkins ES, explaining what this year’s recycling program has meant to them, to their families, and to their education. We learned that the three schools combined have kept more than 10 tons of waste out of the landfill this year. The students also took our pilot program’s recycling rates and considered how much waste would stay out of the landfill if all 58,000 CCPS students recycled in the classroom. The answer? An amazing 200 tons! The School Board’s response was very positive and we are hopeful that this is the start of something good, green, and permanent county-wide. As always, if you have any ideas about how we can continue to green Robious Elementary School, or if you want to help me out with Green Team initiatives next year, please feel free to email me directly. I would love to hear from you!
Bryna Dunn
brynadunn@comcast.net
Recycle Pledge Drive
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Wednesday, July 1, 2009
2008-2009 Green Team Year in Review
Monday, April 6, 2009
Virgnia Trekkers Recycling Video
Do you ever wonder what happens to all those hundreds of pounds of recycling that are separated in the classroom every week? Watch this video to find out!
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Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Everyone goes to the grocery store. Who knew about all the things that many grocery stores do that help conserve and protect the environment? The stores do these things, not only because it helps protect the environment, it helps them save money as well. Here are some examples of things that many grocery stores do:
Many grocery stores have skylights in the roof. They let in sunlight to help light the inside of the store. There are sensors that turn the lights off when the skylights provide enough light inside the store. Turning the lights off when they're not needed helps save energy.
Some grocery stores have motion detectors inside the refrigerator and freezer display cases. They turn the display case lights on when someone is walking down the aisle. The lights turn back off when no one is in the aisle. Turning the lights on only when they're needed helps save energy.
The lightbulbs in these display cases are LED bulbs. LED stands for Light Emitting Diode. This type of light bulb uses much less energy than regular light bulbs, and they last a lot longer. LED bulbs give off very little heat and are cool to the touch. Because the LED bulbs give off less heat than regular light bulbs, the refrigerators and freezers don't have to work as hard to keep your favorite ice cream frozen.
The next time you go on a trip to the grocery store, see if you notice any of these things.
Pay close attention on your next trip and ask yourself the following questions:
What other ways do grocery stores help protect the environment?
What products do they sell that are better for the environment?
Why are these products better for the environment?
Then, the next time you are walking around your house or your school, ask yourself the same questions... and also ask yourself how your home or your school could become beter for the environment!
Thanks go to Woolridge Elementary School's Green Team for the information in this post!
Click on the comments link at the bottom of this post and share your answers!
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