Crossing our Fingers for Green Ribbons

We pushed the button yesterday afternoon on three applications for the Green Ribbon Schools award!  We applied for recognition for two of our schools, TSHS and GPES and for recognition as a school district.  These are lengthy applications asking for specific data and evidence of the school and district work in three pillar areas:

• Pillar 1: Reducing environmental impact and costs.
• Pillar 2: Improving the health and wellness of students and staff.
• Pillar 3: Providing effective environmental and sustainability education, incorporating STEM, civic skills, and green career pathways.

While pulling together the data and writing the applications is a huge amount of work it also allows us pause for a moment and realize the sheer quantity and amazing quality of the sustainability work we are doing in our system.  Even if we aren't formally recognized for our efforts, first by the state, and then hopefully at the national level, our students and our community really are the winners in our work. 

Thanks so much to all the amazing work happening in all 8 of our schools and in our food service, maintenance, transportation, and technology departments.   There isn't any area of our program that isn't doing their part to examine our practices and work to increase our sustainability.    Here is the lead off sentence Kevin wrote for the district application.  "Imagine an entire school district where environmental sustainability is part of everyday life, from lunchroom recycling to core curriculum to the operations of the school system in every department."  We submitted over 35 pages in the applications detailing that work that we are doing in our system and it is pretty awesome!

Thanks so very much to everyone who worked on this project - they put in many, many hours of hard work in pulling together data and crafting language:  Lori Cloud, Kevin Patterson, Dawn Wakeley, Nancy Skerritt, Terry Duty, Cindy Barnhart, Cathy Haws, and Connie Jo Erickson. 

TJHS - Recycle Challenge!

To start off the new school year, TJH Green Team has teamed up with Terracycle to help reduce waste as well as raise money for the school. The Junior High has started collecting and recycling cell phones, Capri-suns, and shoes. The team has a collection box for Cell Phones in the main office, Capri Suns in the commons and pairs of shoes outside of the security office.   We are happy to take donations from our community, especially cell phones!  Please stop by the school to drop off your donations!

Thanks to the helpful students and staff of TJH, Green Team just mailed in 32 cell phones that will be kept out of the waste stream!  The team will start collecting pairs of shoes in December and start a classroom challenge after the start of the New Year. The Green Team thanks Megan C. (Secretary) Alyssa T. (Treasurer) Isobel S. (Vice President) and Kathryn O. (President) and most importantly, Ms. McHenry! 

Way to go bears!

*GREEN TEAM FOR THE WIN*

Thanks to Megan C., Green Team Leader for this post!

TSHS - Making a Difference!

On Tuesday, November 19^th, the TSHS Sustainability Ambassadors (Green Team) completed their November Adopt-a-Road event on the Summit-Landsburg Road near TJH.  In a 2 hour period, we cleaned up a 1.6 mile stretch and picked up 12 bags of garbage and recycling.  These kids clean up their adopted road twice yearly during  November and May.  This was our 7^th event since adopting this stretch of road in 2009.

Participating in the clean-up were:  Anthony R., Jen L., Kylin F., Esmay J., Cassandra Ho, Paige T. and Clare N.  Not pictured is Maddy T.


Thanks to the TSHS Green Team Leader for this post!

TMS Green Team Gets to Work!

Our Green Team is in action! We've gotten the team together and we're ready to get moving at Tahoma Middle School. So far, we've chosen a t-shirt design, started a school vegetable garden, and we are in the process getting a PowerPoint to help advertise our club into motion. We're getting a great start in kicking off the year and plan to have a big impact. We're very excited about the garden, so the students at our school can have fresh vegetables to eat with their lunch. The PowerPoint will bring attention to the Green Team and maybe even get some sixth graders to join the cause. We all share the planet we live on, so we must take care of it!

Thanks to Green Team Leader Jenessa W. for this post!

NEW! 
Green Teams at TMS

• Compost Team
• Education Team
• Garden Team
• Recycling Team
• Yearbook Team

A Curious Rain Garden

Last year students at the Shadow Lake Elementary started to dig a rain garden at the front of the school. They added special plants to help the rain garden filter the water. Then they attached the drain pipe that came off the roof with Mr.  Donaldson’s help and buried it in the soil. When the rain started coming down the water wouldn’t drain {see picture on right}. We waited over the summer to see what happened.

When we returned the next year, the rain garden was dry. About five weeks into school, a Caterpillar came to dig the rain garden deeper because the students couldn’t. Since the rain wouldn’t drain, we suspected that there was a clay vein or a high water table in the ground.

To test those theories, Mrs. White’s class collected some data on October 16^th, 2012. First Mrs. White put a yard stick in the deepest part of the rain garden and used rocks to make it stand up. Second, Mrs. White put a hose next to the yard stick and then turned the water on. Our class went out every fifteen minutes to see if the water was draining, we also took 5-7 pictures. Each time we checked on the rain garden the water height was 0 to 1 inches high so the rain garden is draining.

After a rainy week we went outside to see if the rain garden was still draining and it was. There wasn’t a clay vein based on our experiment but there might be a high water table.

Shadow Lake will continue monitoring the rain garden while it is raining to see if it drains. Clearly this rain garden is a curious one!

Thanks to Mrs. White's Class and Green Team for this Post!

Global Academy Students Trip to the Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility in Ellensburg

Students from THS’ Global Academy journeyed over the mountains to Ellensburg and Puget Sound Energy’s Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility last week.

The trip was part of Global Academy’s study of different types of renewable and nonrenewable energy, climate change, and carbon.

Students toured the visitor’s center, listened to a presentation on wind energy and what PSE is doing at Wild Horse, got to get up close and touch a blade from a wind turbine, and had the chance to enter the base of a turbine.

Students blogged about the trip, and their thoughts on energy usage at pugetsoundoff.org/group/tahoma-global-academy

Troop 459 Makes a Difference for GPES

Mrs. Haws would like to thank Cub Scout troop 459 for their service in the Glacier Park garden.  It was a rainy, cold day but these scouts were hard working and determined to make a difference in their community.  The scouts and their families jumped right in to help winterize and straighten the garden and green house.  They even planted a surprise garden that students at Glacier Park will enjoy in the spring. 

  Thanks so much for your selfless service!