FREE XMAS CRAFT WORKSHOP

Remember Tess, MK Mentor, from the Geelong Doing More With Less Sustainability Roadshow. She was studying at Victoria University and worked with Millennium Kids as part of a University assignment. Not only has she just been employed as an Art/Drama Specialist Teacher at Seaford North Primary School she has also designed some great free art and craft workshops using recycled materials for schools in Geelong.

DOING MORE WITH LESS CHRISTMAS IDEAS

WORKSHOP 1.
1. X-mas gift bags made from recycled bags and papers
2. X-mas cards made from recycled papers
3. X-mas brooches made from bottle tops, paper and brooch backs
4. x-mas lanterns made from recycled paper, string and glitter glue
 WORKSHOP 2
1. x-mas wreaths made from wire or coat hangers, plastic bags and recycled material
2. x-mas themed bunting flags made with recycled papers
3. x-mas tree wall decoration made with recycled papers
4. x-mas decorations made with plastic containers, string and glitter glue. 


Email info@millenniumkids.com.au if you would like to book a free two hour session.

Eight Hands Project - Ten Minutes

Hannah,a Millennium Kids Ambassador and Penrhos College student heard about the Doing More With Less Project at an MK meeting. Not content to hear the stories of what others were doing Hannah set up a project of her own. With three friends, Emma, Sofia and Molly, to help they gave up 10 minutes of their lunchtime to focus on the rubbish at their school. Well done Hannah. You are amazing.

Growing a Home at Medina

Turning a waste land to bush land is no easy task!  At Medina they have rolled up their sleeves and cleaned up the area.  Kids have also been involved in creating a big picture 'vision'. Yesterday when I visited the school we talked about the next stage being to learn a lot about the area, and to start small with action.  We looked at the Doing More with Less blog and at Harvey Primary School's Animoto.  Thanks Harvey!  I also showed the students a book that I bought from the Bundiyarra Aboriginal Community in Geraldton last week.  It's a Wajarri Dictionary - the language of the Murchison region of Western Australia.  We wondered  if there is a Noongar dictionary as well.  A good question to ask Mrs Little.

Kids decided that they should learn more about the plants and animals of the area.  I told them about the Greening Australia website, Grow Us a Home and the students began to investigate.

We then wrote a list of things to do next, as part of learning about the area.  Here's what we came up with.

1. Clean up the area.
2. Organise for rubbish to be removed.
3. Find out information about Kwinana.
4. Take photos of the plants.
5. Do soil testing and write up a description of the soil. (Can use the activities from the thumb drive)
6. Speak with Mrs Little about the Aboriginal history of Kwinana and connection to country.
7. Research the type of plants and animals in the area.
8. Check out the activities in the biodiversity section of the thumb drive that Ingrid gave us.
9. Listen to / record the sounds of birds in the area.
10. Make an Animoto describing what you can see / hear / feel.
11. Investigate Noongar words for the plants and animals.
12. Research bush tucker and medicine for Noongar country.

Medina are keen to get on to the next stage and are planning to send me a progress report by Week 7.  Go Medina!

Copy of Sustainability at Harvey Primary School

Copy of Sustainability at Harvey Primary School


So we gave Harvey PS a Flip camera and showed Sam Jacobs, the teacher www.animoto.com and then WOW - a few days later - their own film showing you their great project. Marvellous work Harvey MK Eco Warriors. You are stars! Just click the blue line.

Portarlington Get Composting

I had a great visit at Portarlington today.  The students were very keen to get started with composting but they weren't sure how to go about it.  So I told them to ask me any questions they needed answered.  One of the kids, Charlotte, asked me how other schools get started. Great question! I showed them the blog and shared the information from some of the other schools that are Doing More with Less.  Great to share across Australia!  We then decided that it would be helpful if everyone had a particular role to play.  Here's what the kids wrote about their roles, and their plans for composting at Portarlington.

Hi my name is Jack.  My job s to survey kids about nude food and try and get kids to bring nude food more often.

Hi my name is Jackson and I'm working with Tom and we are emptying the compost into the compost bin after school and before school we clean them and put them back.

Hi I'm Charlotte and my job is to learn how to build compost bins from recycled resources from the community for our school to use.

Hi our names are Gabby and Montanna.  Our job is to go around to all the classes and speak about our project.  We also speak to teachers and parents.

And it is EVERYONE'S job to model to others about nude food and composting, and to report your stories to Millennium Kids!  Well done Portarlington.  Ingrid

Drysdale and Harvey have a chat

Today Drysdale Primary in Victoria and Harvey Primary in WA got to chat on Skype and share some ideas.  Following the conversation, we gave the Drysdale kids a really short time to come up with some notes on the ideas that were shared.

·         Drysdale Primary School has started the RED Project which is a great way to reduce soft plastics in Drysdale by taking all their soft plastics to school from home etc. and putting them in a big red bin.

      We have Nude Food Day every Tuesday.  Last year Drysdale Primary School won The Primary School award for rubbish free lunch.  Here's us winning the award.  We're very proud!  This photo was even in the local paper.

The RED (Recycle, Educate, Change) project is where you recycle soft plastics.  You cannot recycle soft plastic that has silver in the middle and it would take 660 years if it went to landfill until it breaks down.  We worked out that it takes about 8 generations to break down. Every kg of plastic we get $5.  (Mr Kennedy, the teacher, said that one student had no plastic to contribute because for her family, EVERY day is Nude Food day.  Fantastic!)

At Drysdale Primary School we use a Bokashi system which involves putting our food scrap in a bucket which we then put into a special bokashi bin and we put a special powder which breaks down the scraps into a liquid which we then put into our vegie garden to help the vegies.  Also we have a bucket in every classroom.

Drysdale Primary School is pretty good at remembering to turn our lights of, but some of us don't need to because in the year 5/6 area we have auto lights that has motion detector which saves lots of energy.

Written by the Millennium Kids at Drysdale Primary School.

We are the Leopold and we speak for the trees!

Leopold Primary School plan to have a greener future, and a greener present!  Yesterday, I arrived a little early at the school.  I was escorted to the Environment Room by two very helpful Year Two students, Lulu and Lili. Thanks girls! In class, the students were making posters about Compost, to be put all around the school.  Each class has a little yellow bin that gets emptied every day by one of the environment groups.  The posters help kids learn about what to put in the bins and what not to.

Ms Moreno is the Environment teacher at Leopold and it is her job to help kids to learn about growing food, the importance of trees, frogs and birds and lizards and lots more!  Learning about the environment is a part of Science, Cooking, English, Art, and all aspects of school at Leopold.  And it's also important that the kids have fun while they are learning!

We went on a tour and I saw that care for the environment happens across the school, not just in one room.  Year 2s have been reading stories about the ocean.  Year 6s have been cooking from the garden (and cooked me a FABULOUS LUNCH!), and others have been learning about the Lorax, who speaks for the trees.

Leopold students have been learning about frogs and the environment.  One student, McKenzie has even done some research and has designed a frog pond and the surrounding area.  I'm looking forward to reading her plan in more detail.

During my visit we called Catrina.  The kids were very excited to be sharing all of their news with her!!

Congratulations to Leopold for all of the work you are doing to take care of our environment.  Ingrid

Harvey PS Skypes Drysdale PS in Geelong to Share Ideas

Harvey Primary School skyped  Drysdale Primary School today. We asked them about their sustainability projects. Some of the questions and answer were.

Question- Does Davysdale have a worm farm?

Answer- No, but we have a Bokashi bin.

question- What kind of recycling posters does Drysdale have around the school

Answer- Yes, we have some posters on top of the bins to say what to put in the bin.

Question- Does Drysdale PS turn off the lights when they leave the room?

Answer- Yes, we have sensor lights that senses the movement in the room so they turn off or on automatically.

Question- Does Drysdale have any zero waste lunch day during the year?

Answer- Yes, we have one every week . We won a prize for our waste free lunch days. They are called Nude Food Mondays.

Question - Has Drysdale PS been on a trip to their landfill site?

Answer - No, but we are planning to go to the one in our town.

The skype talk was very good for all students. It was great to talk to the students from Victoria. We heard from their Principal too. We hope to do it again sometime so we can share information between our schools.

Article by Ethan and Jimmy

Kids Zero in on Waste

Doing More With Less students from North Cottesloe PS and Cottesloe PS met today after school to discuss their design for their custom made bin system. This was their second meeting with Rikki, from Creative Spaces, to discuss how they could help educate the public about waste and recycling. They discussed practical issues such as how they would get their creation to events like Sculpture by the Sea, Hallabaloo and the St Luke's Fair in Mosman Park. The team looked over the brief they had given Rikki last month and made suggestions about how people would see the rubbish once it went into the bin. They discussed on site composting and wormfarms, too. So many ideas. After an hour and a half they had honed their ideas and finally signed off on the designs presented by Rikki. Thanks to a Waste Grant from the Waste Authority the girls will see their custom made bins at events in their community at the end of the year.

Bellaire's Fabulous Compost

Bellaire Primary School's project is to create some wonderful compost.  Their teacher, Nicole Lindemayer has been visiting other schools to see what they are up to so that Bellaire can learn from them.  Then, in turn, Bellaire will teach others! The students have also been regularly looking at the Doing More with Less blog in an effort to keep learning. Each classroom in the senior area now has a green compost bucket.  The Bellaire MK team have made signs to teach people about what to do put in the compost bin.  We have put the school in touch with Anthony from Barwon Waste Education as they are very keen for him to come to the school to teach them what he knows.  The Bellaire team have made a short video using their MK blogger and this will soon be up on the blog.  Stay tuned!

Enviro Club at Geelong East

The Enviro Club at Geelong East Primary School has a new home, where they are planning to meet every Monday at lunch time.  It's a very popular club, with over 40 kids applying to be a part of it!  While the students in the club are leading projects, they using the skills and talents of lots of interested people.  The school now has chooks and a worm farm and a new compost tumbler.  Every Tuesday is Nude Food day and at least 70% of students are remembering to bring a lunch with no wrapping on that day.  The club hopes to make every day Nude Food Day!  Kids in the club have promised to send in photos and stories to Millennium Kids.  I'm looking forward to hearing what they get up to next!  Ingrid

Mano's Planet Protectors

Sometimes, when you are in the middle of something, you can forget how far you have come.  This is how it was this morning when I visited Manifold Primary School in Geelong.  They thought that they weren't doing very much...  Then, they showed me some of the projects from around the school....  Here's what they are up to:  They have a worm farm and compost bays are being built.  The kids have been working in the school garden and have been learning that the more you grow, the less you need to buy from the shops - so less waste.  Once a month they have a community food swap at the school where people bring along produce from their garden to share with others.  Mrs Hines has the environment as a focus in her class.  They have been looking at food choices and the waste that comes along with them.  The big question her class has been looking at is 'Is there an alternative?', so kids are suggesting making their own biscuits and bread, and bringing fruit instead of chips.  Mrs Hines keeps learning more and more herself so that she can teach the kid even more.  During the holidays she went to see the 'Ocean Crusaders' and has also done a Permaculture Design Course.  Mano is soon to produce a movie called 'The Day Rubbish Fought Back', using the blogger camera that MK gave them at the Roadshow.   Go Mano!  Ingrid

Kwinana Youth Council Events Want MK Help

The Youth Council will help audit rubbish and see how they can reduce waste at their events in the future.

 

The Kwinana Youth Council have invited MK to help them audit their youth event on 27th October 2012. MK Doing More With Less Taem will set up a display to promote their work and help audit the event - the MK Team will find out just how much waste is generated at the youth event and then help the Youth Council develop a policy for waste free events. Send in your ideas of how events can become waste free.

Calista Team Steam Ahead

Kids were collecting paper recycling from each class in boxes when I arrived!

The team have been researching wormfarms and are looking forward to a visit the The Grove to check out their ideas!

Calista Primary School Doing More With Less Team have been busy with various projects since the Doing More With Less Sustainability Roadshow in Kwinana. Weekly meetings ensure their progress is steady - they have used their Flip camera and are making a film about their wormfarm research and how to set up a wormfarm. Using their recycling philospoghy they have found two old unused wormfarms and fixed them up and then set up two wormfarms to collect class food waste. The film will be completed and given to MK to use to promote recycling. They are also making a Powerpoint about the excursion to the Rockingham Landfill site to show other schools. The kids are really keen to continue reducing their food waste - they are looking into setting up a compost unit  to reduce this waste further. The kids will visit The Grove in Peppermint Grove to look at how they tackle sustainbility. Can't wait for more updates.

New Kids Join the Team

Aryan, Harry, Indra and Hannah celebrate with chocolate

Yesterday Harry, Aryan, Hannah and Indra joined the Doing More with Less Team. Aryan (11) came to the City of South Perth Ambassadors meeting to discuss how he got his Dare to Lead  project up and running to plant trees. He talked about how his project needed  " to make a positive change in society"  and that he had to keep working at it to get someone who would help him reach his goal. Evetually after many knock backs Aryan and 6 friends planted 43 trees in 45 minutes on the foreshore in Salter Point, with assistance from MK and the City of South Perth.  The team came up with a ten things to keep them on track:
1. Brainstorm and come up with an idea.
2. Choose your best option.
3. Contact people who can help you.
4. Have a back up plan.
5. Stay positive.
6. Strength comes in numbers.
7. Dont wait to long to do it.
8. Prepare for your activity.
9. Take action.
10. Celebrate with chocolate.

So after Aryan's talk Cat introduced the Doing More With Less Program and talked about the Two Hands Project. She had noticed a whole lot of cigarette butts outside the meeting room. So the team put the ten ideas into action - and voila - 452 butts in ten minutes! The kids simply saw the problem and took action for ten minutes.

452 butts in ten minutes! What could you achieve?

The team will now go back to their schools and put some ideas into place. Let's see what they get up to.

Doing More with Less at Dawesville

I was so happy to go to Dawesville Catholic Primary School to see everything they do to look after the environment.  The Green Team took me on a tour of the school and I got to see lots of productive vege patches, 25 (!!!) chickens, 3 aquaponics systems, a well-organised recycling centre, worm widdle for sale, and a whole lot more!  We went out with the Pre-Primary kids.  They picked veges and collected the eggs, then went back to the class to eat.  Nearly all of the pre-primary kids loved their veges!



I had a few questions for The Green Team and they had some well thought out answers.
1. "What Doing More with Less Project are you doing?"  "We want to have a community compost.  We were going to have it for the whole community but we would like to start with our Parish."  (They had some great reasons for this.)
2. "What students are involved in waste projects?"  "The entire school!  Different groups have different roles and they are led by the Green Team, Chook Champions, Worm Warriors and the Recycling group."

3. "How can you share what you have been learning about?"  "We made a movie.  The Green Team used the Millennium Kids bloggie camera to make a 4 minute movie, teaching other people about Doing More with Less."  We will be sharing this movie on the blog soon.  Stay tuned!
4.  "Where to next with your project?"  "We need to complete the design  and then get a quote."
5.  "How can Millennium Kids help?"  "Perhaps with a little bit of funding? We have a parent at the school who has built a lot of the vege enclosures.  We will speak with him about how much it might cost."
At Dawesville they have raised funds for other projects with Spellathons, Lapathons and a Waste Wise grant.  It's great to see that the kids are a part of the problem-solving and planning of all the projects. Well done Dawesville! Ingrid

Worm Widdle for Sale!!  

The Green Team from Dawesville Reports

Today I visited Dawesville Catholic College and the students wrote a report about what they have been doing.  Here it is.

At Dawesville Catholic Primary School the environment plays a big role in our school learning.
Each class takes a role in the helping of the environment by having there own recycling bucket and a Chook bucket which supplies food for the chickens and worms. Our year two's are in charge of paper recycling and making sure that our school is being paper wise. Also the Green Team make sure that the classes are not putting any plastic in the recycling bucket we give out the environmental award, each Monday assembly. We have been running this Environmental program for three years and are very proud of what we have achieved. We want this to carry on as long as the school goes.

Back to bushland

Here's a bunch of rubbish that the students from Medina collected yesterday.  I can't wait to see this space being turned back in to bushland.  Next week I am meeting with the kids from years 4, 5 and 6 and they will tell me all about their progress.  Here's a few questions I'll be asking:  What did you do with the rubbish you collected?  What is your plan to try to stop people from putting their rubbish there?  What have other schools done to keep an area waste-free?  How will you let people know what you are doing?  What kind of plants will you plant - especially bush tucker and bush medicine?  Who will help you?  Lots of these questions are on the MK 10 Step plan.  Good luck!

A Fabulous Meeting with Riverside PS

Justin's Wormfarm
Justin gave a report about his wormfarm. Justin's mother had problems setting up the wormfarm. Justin helped his Mum. They have already got one bottle of worm juice. Justin will sell it at the Doing More With Less stall at  the Royal Show.  Ingrid is running the Landcare Pavilion and will showcase the project at the Royal Show. Ingrid will give free tickets to Justin so he can get into the Royal Show. The money raised from selling worm wee will go to Millennium Kids. Justin had a chat with is mother and decided to get food scraps from other neighbours. Justin gave them instructions - no citrus, no onions in scraps. People are leaving scraps for Justin. Going so well needs more worms so Justin negotiated with neighbours to give the extra food waste to their chickens.

Waste Audit
The team collected 7 bins from all around the school. They tipped  the waste onto a  big tarp. Separated into three types - plastic - recycling and food waste. Used gloves. They weighed the food waste. Approx 10.6kg of food waste going into the bin each day. Students are throwing away all their sandwiches and the team noticed whole fruit was not being eaten. Greater amount of plastic. The main plastics were  gladwrap, yoghurt sandwich bags and juice boxes and lost of Tetra Paks.

The Chicken Project 
The Chicken Team decided the best way to reduce the food waste was to put in a chicken coop. The girls did a presentation that discussed opportunities, challenges and who would look after them during the holidays.

Cat sent an email with lots of questions:

• What other food will chickens need?
• How will you collect scraps?
• How will we change the behaviour of people doing the wrong thing?
• What other schools have chicken coops?

Skype with Cr Rhys Williams

The students talked to Cr Rhys Williams, City of Mandurah via skype. He was really keen to hear the kids ideas and suggested they come to Council to present ideas. The questions the kids put to Cr Williams were:

• Do you think we could have a recycling plant in WA? 
• Why do we send our recycling over East? 
• Why is it not illegal to put a recycling sign on a product when you cant recycle it. 

Mr Elwood from Cleanaway
Myah asked her Dad to come to the meeting. He works for Cleanaway. At home Mr Elwood teaches his kids about recycling. He thinks education is the key. He really liked the chicken project idea. He said waste going into the ground created problems. He really liked that chickens would reduce the amount of food going into landfill. He was sad to see birds on the landfill. He said there was no control system to keep birds out. He talked about birds that came to the tip - some even come from overseas. There are no predators there to scare them off.

Riverside Team skype Cr Rhys Williams and talk about waste strategies

Creating a New Look Bin

See through bins Bella saw in Europe - she thinks this will make people think before they pin things in the bin!

The team with Rikki from Creative Space 

Kids from North Cottesloe Primary Doing More With Less project introduced their friends from MK Western Suburbs Ambassadors to Rikki Clarke, Creative Spaces yesterday at their meeting and started talking about their idea for a see through bin. The team from North Cottesloe PS were keen to see if making a bin see through would get people to think before they binned their rubbish. The see through bin idea developed after Bella had seen some overseas. Alexandra had also seen some interesting public bins in Europe and they was keen to share their ideas. The team from St Hilda's Junior School, Cottesloe Primary School and North Cottesloe PS discussed their ideas with Rikki, drew their concepts and made notes about they wanted to achieve. The bins would be used at community events such as Sculpture By the Sea, Hullaballoo, St Luke's Sustainability Fair to promote recycling and waste education in the community. The kids checked out the www.thefuntheory.com website and showed Rikki the ideas being put in place overseas. Rikki was really inspired by the kids ideas. Rikki will come back to the next meeting to to present the kids with some concept plans. Thanks to the Community Grant Scheme for the Kids Zero in on Waste Grant.

Waste, Habitats and Manifold Primary School

Students at Manifold are busily cleaning up their schoolyard and teaching students and adults why it's important.  They are learning about the effects of waste on wildlife and on the environment in general. They are encouraging students to reduce the amount of packaging used for their food by having Nude Food Mondays, then maybe on all days!  The enviro team plan to advertise and hold a Clean Up Mano Day each term and will register for the National Nude Food Fundraiser in October.  Go Mano!

Medina Kids Clean Up the Bushland

Kids at Medina are planning to turn a waste land near their school into an outdoor classroom which will have bush tucker, bush medicine and other native plants.  Today they spent two hours cleaning up the area.  They were surprised at what they found - foam mattresses, car parts and even a street sign!  The kids remembered back to the Doing More with Less Roadshow and sorted all of the rubbish into metals, plastic and general waste.  The Sustainability Ambassadors are working through the MK 10 Step plan to work out where to next.  Stay tuned for some photos of the clean up!

A Letter of Thanks - Doing More With Less Kwinana

My name is Tahlia and I am a student at North Parmelia Primary School. I am in room 13 at school and I attended your fabulous conference at the Zone on Wednesday the 15th and Thursday 16th of August. The 10 kids that atatended from my school were so grateful that they got to go.It was a big pleasure to meet all the kids from different schools and all the kind adults. I just wanted to let you know that I had a great time and would just like to say thank you for having us. Yours sincerely Tahlia, Bree, Luke, Jayden, Paige, Tanatswa, Sibyl, Reanne, Gareth, Shyniah.

What? An agenda? Excited!

How excited do we get when we meet with our Doing More With Less schools and there is an agenda that is sent to us? We get very excited, that is what we do!

Meeting Agenda 

20th September 2012, 1.10pm

Riverside Primary School, Room 5

Miss Clark                Welcome and introductions

Justin                         Worm Farm update

Waste Team               Waste audit results and observations.

Waste Team               Chicken Project

Cr Rhys Williams      Question and Answer

Reuben Elwood         Question and Answer

Braeley                       Closing address

Jamie, James and Mitchell, students from Riverside Primary School, had a surprise opportunity last week - they received a reward for their Doing More With Less Project efforts. They were invited to a special meeting at Scotch College in Swanbourne to listen to Paul Sharp, founder of Two Hands Project. Paul showed the students a film about his adventures on the Pacific Ocean looking for rubbish sucked into the ocean from the Japanese Tsunami. Paul tracked the rubbish across the sea and surveyed the distribution and types of rubbish found. He showed the findings to the students. He talked about how rubbish affected marine life and how in fact plastic was pollution because it broke down and was now being eaten by marine life and the marine life was in turn being eaten by other predators, and that people were eating the fish.He said much of it was 'stupid plastic' - plastic that was single use, like bottle tops and plastic bags!
The three boys were inspired by the talk and went back to their school and helped organise their own Two Hands Project - half an hour of cleaning up in a place you love. The students at Riverside chose their school.

Look what can be achieved in 30 minutes! 

Riverside young leaders meet Paul Sharp. Two Hands Project

Harvey Primary School Joins Doing More With Less

Harvey Primary School were not able to come to the Doing More With Less Roadshow in Mandurah so the MK Team will visit them on the 17th October 2012. The students have already been to the landfill site and already have ideas about how they can reduce waste. Next week they will visit the Alcoa Refinery and the Wormfarm and look at how a company manages its waste. From there they will start thinking about their own waste management issues, opportunities and challenges. Welcome to Doing More With Less Harvey Primary School. We look forward to hearing your ideas. Cat MK

Asha and Kali Don't Waste an Opportunity

Asha and Kali from Calista don't waste an opportunity to get informed.  Check out the report they wrote after visiting the Rockingham Landfill Site.  Well done!

Landfill Cells

·      At Millar Road Landfill site cells are made by digging a big hole, adding a thick layer of plastic and then adding pipes for the excess liquid.

·      A single cell at Millar Road Landfill will last up to 2 years.

·      When a cell is full they cover it with a thick layer of plastic, clay and then sand. After that is done they plant shallow rooted native plants.

·      From now on there are not allowed to be any new landfill sites on the Swan Coastal Plain.

By Asha and Kali, Calista Primary School

Oscar and Conner and Their Scientific Thinking

Two Calista students are very concerned about the wasted water at their school and are doing something about it.  They have identified the problem, taken some photos and developed a plan.  At Millennium Kids, we get very excited when students think so scientifically and creatively about environmental issues.  Here we have some problem-solvers of the future!  Here's the plan.

WATER SAVING PIPE SOLUTION

                                              

Hi, I’m Oscar and my friend Connor is working on making a water saving pipe system.  It is going to take a while to build because it is complicated and big pipes are involved with this project.  We will need 2 large funnels, 1 pool filter, 2 large Gas and Liquid Nitrogen canisters, 2 medium sized metal chambers, 1 large mesh piece, 1000 kilowatt motor, cement and 50 pipes.

The tools we will be trying to get hold of are shovels, and a jackhammer.

It works by collecting the water  from the air con and the rain.

I am looking forward to hearing the progress of this idea!

Checking Out The Projects

So many ideas. So many great plans. Ingrid and I spent the afternoon checking out project ideas, mapping out the next steps, devising questions about your project plans to get you thinking and coming up with schedules to sit with you and hear how your projects are developing. More soon. Cat and Ingrid

Riverside Rewards - Jamie's Team

So what would you do if you discovered 25% of rubbish going to landfill could be recycled? This is just what Jamie and his team discovered. They just couldn't believe the figure. They asked questions and they didn't like the answers they got. Jamie was really upset. "This is really bad. I cant believe it," he said. Jamie and his team wanted to find out why the figure was so high. They want to meet with the local Mayor and the Minister for Environment to find out how they can improve this result. So Jamie here goes. I have met with a local City of Mandurah Councillor and told him your story. His name is Rhys Williams. Actually, he has been involved with Millennium Kids for a long time so he knows what kids can do and is really keen to meet with you and hear your ideas. Let me know when your next meeting is so we can set up an opportunity for your team to tell meet him so you can share your ideas.

Riverside Rewards - Sustainability Ambassadors Team

The Riverside Team were not content with one project,  so they have three! The Sustainability Ambassadors Team decided to review the waste created at lunchtime. They think the can reduce the organic waste going to landfill. Since the Sustainability Roadshow the team has met with their teacher, Meg Clark, once a week to discuss how they can make a difference. They are going to audit the waste and weigh it. They  will visit the Rockingham Landfill site and education centre with their whole class as a reward for their efforts so far. They want their whole class involved. I met with the Principal and the Deputy Principal. Everyone is very excited about the project and the students' leadership. Great work girls! I look forward to working with you all at your next team meeting. Doing More With Less Mentor Cat

Riverside Rewards - Justin's Project

Riverside Primary School have stepped right up and planned three projects. Wonderful news! Yesterday I visited the school and presented Justin with his wormfarm and worms in front of the whole school. I think Justin was pretty excited. I am going to be his Doing More With Less Mentor because I have a wormfarm too and we can share the stories of our worms. Hey, Justin, I think some of my worms are having babies because they have a white band around their tummy! Is that right? Hey - thanks to Alcoa Foundation for the wormfarm and the worms!

I look forward to sharing my worm stories with you too! From Cat

North Parmelia Primary School

North Parmelia Primary Sustainability ideas

Challenges

Bins
• Money issues
• People might put the wrong thing in the wrong bin
• Damage to bins - kicked over

Wrapper free Wednesday
• Convincing people to do it
• Finding things that are wrapper free

Worm farm
• Keeping them moist
• People put the wrong thing in the compost bins
• People going in and taking out the worms

Opportunity - To promote in our school• Classroom competitions - the winning class will receive a trophy and a certificate
• Inform others using posters and videos
• Workshops

What do we need?• Coloured bins
• More worm bins/ big worm farms
• Prizes
• Certificates
• Money
• People that say yes

MK Rejects Plastic Name Tags

At the Doing More With Less Sustainability Roadshow Mat from Medina Primary School did an audit on some of the resources MK was using at the Roadshow. Kids designed some new games that were waste free and suggested in future we source a new chocolate product that is not wrapped in packaging. Even the plastic name tags came into question. So this morning the MK team counted all the plastic names tags that had been returned for reuse. The team had purchased a box of 200 name tags in 2010. In 2012 after the last Roadshow there were just 6 left, so MK will no longer buy these non recyclable items. We will simply have to find an eco friendly way to identify people. Any suggestions?

South Coast Baptist College

South Coast Baptist College Teams - Go Team!

Medina Primary School

Medina Primary School Team! Go team!

Calista Primary School

Calista Primary School Team! Go team!

Problem:

Too many food scraps going into the green rubbish bin at school

Solution:
To create a worm farm and compost heap
We would like to create colour-coded bins

Challenges:
Finding a place to have the worm farm



Opportunity:

• Raising money
• Reducing rubbish to land fill
• Building the worm farm and compost heaps

What do you need?
A place to put the worms, colour-coded bins, bigger worm farms, compost tumblers, worms, money, advertisements and soil.

Bertram Primary School

Bertram MK Team! Go team!

Our community group will be made up out of year 4,5,6 's to help keep our school environment clean and healthy in our swale and our school.we need to keep our environment in the swale clean because we have a lot of native animals and native plants living in there. After lunch and recess small groups will go out and pick up the rubbish. We will need buckets, gloves and buckets and coloured vest so students and staff can identify us when we are walking through the school.

We have worm farms, compost, chickens, solar panels. For fun we do kitchen, garden, music, sport and active dance. 

Alcoa can help us with more bins, colored vests, buckets, gloves and tongs.Can you give us some ideas and resources to keep our school and community clean. Could you please help us clean the outside areas such as, the swale, basketball courts, oval and playgrounds. It would help our school get cleaner. It would make a big difference to our school and hopefully be one of the best schools in Perth .

PLEASE help our SCHOOL

Top 14 tips to Reduce Waste

Kyle and Jarod from Bertram PS and Joshua and Heather from SCBC were part of the Millennium Kids Doing More with Less workshop in Kwinana. The day was about how to keep the local environment healthy. In the afternoon, we joined the Blogging team to write what we had learnt during the day.

3 Recycling Tips

The more we can recycle the less rubbish and pollution in our area.

1. Make sure you learn which products you can put in the recycling bins
2. Use old parts to make something new
3. Eat more organic foods and less processed foods (processed foods have more waste)

7 Tips to Reduce Plastic

We should reduce plastic because it doesn't break down and ends up polluting our oceans and in our rubbish tips.

1. Sew cotton bags to bag vegetables and fruit at the supermarket
2. Re-use the same plastic bags that you have
3. Use the supermarket recycling bags
4. Use one plastic for all fruits and vegetables instead of many
5. Buy the organic fruits that don't come in plastic bags
6. Reuse plastic bags and containers
7. Reuse plastic bottles to make plant pots

4 Worm Farming Tips

Worm Farms are a great way to use food scraps instead of throwing them in the bin.

1. No citrus fruit scraps (those can be put into compost instead)
2. Only use food waste
3. Make sure your soil is moist
4. Identify the types of worms that you have

We hope that these tips will help you to keep the environment clean by reducing your waste.

Marshmallow and Spaghetti Challenge

The Millennium Kids Doing More with Less workshop was held on the 15th August, 2012 at The Zone in Kwinana.  The event was about waste, recycling and looking after the environment.  There were 6 primary schools involved.

The Challenge
Students were involved in a team challenge with marshmallows and raw spaghetti.  The challenge was to build the tallest tower with these items without it falling down. Students had 5 minutes to complete the challenge. The challenge taught students to cooperate and work as a team.

Tua and Aron were part of the winning team, building the tallest standing tower.  The teams learnt:

• teams had to concentrate
• teams had to work together as one
• teams learnt about the different roles in a team challenge - leader, implementer, encourager, time-keeper 

This photo is the team with the tallest tower!



photo coming soon

Riverside Primary School Girls Have A GO!

Riverside Primary School Girls Have a Go!

Problem: After lunch every day there is a noticeable amount of litter, in particular plastic around our school.

Opportunity: We can research similar plans that have occurred in this school and others in the past.

Challenge: We feel like our principal, our student council leader, and some teachers will not support the idea because we are very busy. Also we have just started with a new timetable.

Solution: Our solution is to create a club at one classroom with two groups of two students called ‘litter monitors’ that go around every lunch time to collect the rubbish and then the school can make art out of it.

We Need: 6 rubbish claws, 6 buckets with lids.

Jamie's Project

Jamie and his team from Riverside Primary School were really concerned to hear that 25% of things that could be recycled ended up in landfill.

His team said, "The problem is 25% of recycled rubbish is sent to landfill when it could be remade into new things as what it was before. If we can recycle the 25% that is sent to the tip we can slow down production and the cost for new things."

The challenge is to write to the  Minister to get a meeting to discuss this issue and get approval and to find ways to reduce the recycle rubbish that is being wasted.

Jamie said," After a few years when recycling gets big we could use some spare money for replanting plants or help some country that are having a hard time.We need government approval for this idea that our team has created."

Leopold: Reducing Waste, Bringing Back Life

At Leopold Primary, they see the connections between different 'pillars' of sustainability, in this case being waste, water and biodiversity.  They plan to take on two projects - cleaning up and regenerating the storm-water overflow pit on their school grounds, and caring for their local wetlands park areas - Gateway Sanctuary.

Now, the two areas are full of rubbish and there is very little life.  Leopold students are going to be learning about frog ponds and wetlands areas in their environment classes.  They will participate in Clean Up Australia Day (Clean up Leopold Gateway Sanctuary Day) and National Tree Day.  They will de-rubbish, re-vegetate and bring these areas back to life!

The team has identified different groups that might help out - City of Greater Geelong, Greening Australia, Landcare and the Barwon Water Community Nursery and they have already been given permission to help to look after the areas.  They are hoping for some expert help with frog pond design and build and to teach kids how to grow native plants from seeds to re-vegetate the area.

Waste issues affect whole ecosystems and individual species.  It's great that Leopold is doing something to tackle these issues, both at their school and in their wider community!                                                  

Team Portarlington

Meet the Portarlington team:  Jack, Tom, Jackson Ross, Charlotte, Montana and Gabby.

They are concerned about the amount of rubbish and the lack of recycling at their school.  The team knows that before people will do something, they need to know more about the problem.  So they spoke at the school assembly, and gathered the waste from that one Friday onto a big tarp.  Here's what it looked like.

It make you realise just how much packaging there is when you see it all together like this!

Next the team is trying to tackle food waste.  They plan to put a food scraps bin in each of the 8 classrooms, and one in the staff room and a student from each room will empty the bin into the compost bin or worm farm each day. 

Next on the agenda, the team hopes to work out ways to recycle their plastic waste. 

Refuse, reduce, re-use,  recycle, re-think, realise...

Cutting Food Waste at North Geelong Secondary College

At the Doing More with Less Roadshow, students from North Geelong Secondary discovered that 40% of waste in the City of Greater Geelong is food waste.  And they plan to do something about it, starting with the waste in food technology at their school. 

The food technology room now produces five bags of waste every day and the students plan to cut this down to one.  The teacher in the room, Ms Martin, is excited by the idea and has agreed to help out, and the school principal has also given the go ahead.

North Geelong plans to have two bins in food technology - one for waste and one for food scraps.  They also aim to build two small vegetable patches, and fill them with herbs which will be used for cooking.  This will cut down on purchasing herbs wrapped in plastic, reduce food miles, and the herbs will be organic - good for people and good for the planet.  A bakashi will be used to help break down scraps quickly and the liquid generated from it will be used on the herb garden, and other gardens around the school.

The students also plan to educate staff and students about waste, particularly food waste in the kitchen, so hopefully lots of people will start using these ideas at home as well.

Great plan North Geelong!  Good luck!