Going Green at the CLC 2013
Carmel High School Learning Center
The Carmel Learning Center at CHS offers a unique form of education to its students. The individualized, family-like atmosphere of the program make it ideal for a student-led Carmel Green Teen project. Their 2013 project includes a collection of mini-projects which, when combined, make a big difference. These include mixed recycling, reduction of paper waste, replacement of disposable Styrofoam cups with reusable cups, and adding potted plants to their classrooms.
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Students at the CLC determined that they were using about 210 disposable Styrofoam cups each week. Because Styrofoam is not easily recyclable and takes so long to break down in landfills, they thought that they should purchase and use reusable, washable cups and glasses to make a huge environmental impact.
The students continued to evaluate their environmental impact at school. Doing so they noticed a lot of paper waste in the trash cans. They determined that the computer printers in their area used over 100 sheets of paper per day, and no one was printing on both sides.
All of the CLC students came up with ideas on how to make their classrooms greener. One student was fascinated at learning about the benefits of potted plants.She discovered that research conducted by Amanda Read of The Royal College of Agriculture in England demonstrated that students attending the lectures in rooms containing plants were much more attentive, with distractions reduced by 70%. Students were also almost 100% more likely to return to lectures in the rooms with plants.
Students continue to evaluate their project. They weigh their paper recycling each week, monitor how much paper is being used, and continue to remind classmates and teachers to print double-sided. These students have also educated over 2300 other students at CHS about this topic.
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The students developed an instruction sheet on how to effectively clean and disinfect their reusable kitchenware and will save nearly 7500 cups from entering landfills yearly.
The students determined that an easy way to have a big environmental impact in this area, would be to encourage their group to reduce pages printed, print on both sides of the paper, reuse paper when possible, and recycle when done.
Although the far-reaching environmental impact of houseplants is minimal, they do remove volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the air. The students also hope to evaluate how these plants effect the general well being of the students.
The students then calculate the cumulative environmental impacts of their projects and provide a visual as incentive to continue with their green efforts. In the fall they will launch a “Going Green” Twitter campaign and note the number of followers. Great idea!
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