Calgary, 2020 - 2021 School Year
Schools involved with Calgary EcoSchools or the City of Calgary's EcoLeaders program had the opportunity to create short videos showcasing their eco projects for the 2021 Mayor's Environment Expo. One of the schools who submitted a video was Collingwood Elementary, who achieved Platinum certification in their first year with the EcoSchools program by getting the entire school involved.
How did they do it?
The teachers at Collingwood Elementary were excited about the EcoSchools program, but struggled to find the time to plan eco activities during the pandemic. They found a clever solution, and partnered with students from the environmental engineering program from the National University- Medellin in Colombia, who chose eco actions for every grade and planned lessons and activities.
By spring break, all grades had completed their first eco action:
- Kindergarten: GOOS Paper
- Grade 1: The Great Gulp
- Grade 2: Heating and Cooling
- Grade 3: Young Reporters for the Environment
- Grade 4: Waste-free Lunch
Grade 5: School Energy Exploration
Teachers integrated environmental literacy into the classroom, making art with recycled materials, practicing math by calculating water consumption, and taking science class into the school naturalization area to learn about plants.
To learn more about some of Collingwood Elementary's eco actions, check out our posts about Collingwood's School Energy Exploration, Indoor Gardening and Greenhouses, Community Clean Up, pollution posters, and ecobricks project.