Argyle School’s green campaign wins big prize
What started as a simple Grades 7 and 8 science project on environmental effects of carbon footprints, turned into a campaign that reached more than 40,000 people on Twitter.
“We decided we wanted to get more people involved. Not just the 30 students in my class,” Argyle Elementary School teacher Curtis Norman said Thursday about his class’ winning campaign in the second Saskatchewan Environmental Society’s 25 Acts of Energy Conservation Contest.
The contest — which ran from March 23 to April 27 — asks kindergarten to Grade 12 classes from across the province to come up with ideas to promote conservation. Teachers can enter the contest to help their students learn environmentally conscious habits at a young age.
Argyle won the first prize of $1,000 for their project after students and their families completed nearly 1,000 acts of energy conservation.
Acts ranged from kindergarten students getting their parents to turn down their hot water heaters to students using reusable garbage bags to bingo cards full of energy conservation acts explained Norman.
Grade 8 student Bryden Loucks said it was easy to get people involved after they shared how much of an impact their carbon footprint was making.
“We felt that there was something that needed to be done in the environment because if we don’t do something, we don’t try and make a change, who will?” Loucks said.
Grade 8 classmate Thomas Haidl agreed.
“(We learned) the shocking truth that if we don’t do something now, that there won’t be anything to save later. Our grandkids may not even know what a tree is in the future if we don’t protect them now,” Haidl said.
Students checked Twitter every morning and Norman said the campaign’s reach on social media — using the hashtag #25 Acts — was the key to their success.
“We were hoping for 20 (acts) over the whole contest and we had 15 after the first day,” Norman said.
Since the contest began, Loucks and Haidl have noticed a change in their lifestyles. Loucks longboards to school every day and Haidl hopes to avoid getting rides to school in the winter.
“I just love being outside, it’s the best part about everything. Just being outside, running around, playing, doing all that,” Haidl said, noting the importance of protecting the environment for younger generations.
During the contest, some of Norman’s lessons focused on saving trees. “The kids realized if we don’t do something about the rain forest now that it might not be there by 2050,” Norman said. What developed was an idea to adopt a rainforest if they won.
If money is left over, Norman said the class hopes to purchase reusable water bottles for the school’s students.
Around the province, 700 students participated in the contest. Other schools highlighted for their work: Churchill High School in La Ronge for its Waste Not Want project, Davidson School for its community cleanup and Henry Braun Elementary School for its litterless lunches and refraining from electronics in the classroom.