The Youth Council will help audit rubbish and see how they can reduce waste at their events in the future. |
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Kwinana Youth Council Events Want MK Help
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! |
New Kids Join the Team
Aryan, Harry, Indra and Hannah celebrate with chocolate |
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? |
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
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
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!! |
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
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.
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.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
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!
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
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:
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.
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.
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 |
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
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
Meeting Agenda
20th September 2012, 1.10pm
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
Sunday, September 16, 2012
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.
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! |
Thursday, September 6, 2012
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
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
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
Saturday, September 1, 2012
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
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