Four Powell River schools have entered into this year’s BC Green Games with video entries and they need support to cash in on $22,000 in prizes for the greenest schools.
The province-wide competition asks students to submit entries that can include videos, photographs and writing on sustainability and environmental projects that they have undertaken. The competition is open to students in kindergarten through to grade 12 and is, according to the website, “designed to motivate action, enable sharing and reward and celebrate the green efforts of schools in BC.” All entries go online where visitors to the website can vote for their favourites.
Brooks Secondary School is in the running with a video about its student-led Bike-to-School Project. Run by grade 12 students Michael Brinton and Alyssa Stapleton, the program rewards students who bike to school by clocking their kilometres and giving away free meals at the school cafeteria for leaving the car at home.
The video features interviews with organizers and participants who talk about the importance of reducing their carbon footprint and the benefits of starting the day with some exercise. Footage taken on the road, some sharp editing and a bass-driven soundtrack lend the film a fast pace as Brinton challenges other schools to beat the over 1,100 kilometres that Brooks’ students and staff have biked since November.
Oceanview Secondary School students submitted a video about a series of lessons, field trips and experiments they conducted related to local plant species and the threat of invasive plants. Titled The Aliens Have Arrived and using the Star Wars theme the video documents students heading out into the forest to learn about plants and in the science lab testing vitamin C content of native plant species versus foreign.
“Doing these kinds of initiatives is really important...because I think kids take it for granted, they don’t really realize it’s an issue,” said Oceanview teacher Jenna Adema. “The contest itself gets people moving and actually doing it...When there’s an initiative or a contest it gets the ball rolling and gets people on board.”
Grief Point Elementary School entered its bag-making program into the games, where students took old newspapers and made holiday gift bags for Christmas and Valentine’s Day. Students also took part in a school recycling program and willingly suffered through Freezing Fridays, where temperatures were turned down in classrooms and students were encouraged to bring a favourite sweater. Their entry features a PowerPoint presentation on their programs with facts on recycling and conservation.
Edgehill Elementary School’s Lights Out! campaign is the backbone of its video entry. During the initiative students took turns patrolling the school to make sure that all lights were off when rooms were not in use. BC Hydro reported to the school that the students’ diligence resulted in a 13-per-cent energy saving last year. Every few weeks the school holds a lights out assembly to declare the most energy-efficient classroom and hand out a first-place trophy, made from recycled material.
All the entries can be found on the
. Winners will be based on the number of votes received by March 31.
