Think BIG: A Year of Green

Issue: Environmental Responsibility

Grant Amount: $72,884.20
Sandia Park, NM
Year Funded: 2011
Organization: EAST MOUNTAIN HIGH SCHOOL FOUNDATION

Contact Information

Bradd Schulke & Marisa Salazar, 505-281-7400

How can a school inspire students to Think BIG about the future of environmental stewardship? At East Mountain High School, the entire junior class will take on not one, not two ... but five projects that will make a BIG difference on the East Mountain High School campus and its ecological footprint. Example projects will include installing a wind turbine and solar panels, creating a community garden and greenhouse, improving a recycling program, collecting rainwater and using water runoff to create habitat for local plants and animals.

The Think BIG project directly addresses the issue of Environmental Responsibility. Through working on five ambitious projects to transform the East Mountain High School campus into a green school, the juniors involved in the Think BIG project will learn that making positive change IS possible and will demonstrate this to the rest of our school and the wider community. Working together, we will install a wind turbine, create a school garden, capture our rainwater and use it to irrigate our campus, reduce our waste stream through recycling and increase biodiversity on campus though habitat restoration. As important as all of these things are in reducing the environmental impact of our school, the MOST important thing we will be doing is demonstrating that we can all join together to improve our community. Our teachers call this the ethic of environmental stewardship. We call it thinking big because it’s our future.

Project Updates

Sarah Jane, Ben & Rebecca: Building a Greenhouse

Ben: Our project is building the greenhouse on the EM HS campus. Why a greenhouse? We want to provide an example of how people can raise their own food, even when the weather is cold and the soil is poor and rocky.

Sarah Jane: The greenhouse is made out of straw bales and 2x6s because straw is cheap and a good insulator. Anyone could build this.

Rebecca: Our biggest challenge has been putting the roof on the greenhouse. The greenhouse is an octagon and the roof is a dome. We built the dome out of PVC pipe covered with plastic on the ground and then lifted it onto the greenhouse. Now it looks kind of lumpy.

Ben: After the roof is finished, we are going to install raised beds and an irrigation system. We are going to plant strawberries, sweet onions, peppers, cucumber, snap peas, beets, carrots and herbs.

Sarah Jane: We've been working on Saturdays and Sundays to put on the roof. It's been frustrating sometimes but kind of in a good way. It's nice to get outside and try to build things with other people.

Tyler and Jacob: Recycling

Tyler: Our BIG goal was to recycle 20,000 pounds of trash this year and keep it out of a landfill.

Jacob: Mostly what we recycle is paper and cardboard, and also lots of aluminum cans and plastic bottles. The teachers have bins in their classrooms and we have put recycling bins outside the school and in the hallways to make it easy to recycle. We come around after school once a week and pick everything up. We weigh it and load it up for a trip to the recycling center. The picture is one week of recycling.

Tyler: Right now we are averaging about 400 lbs. of recycling a week. This means that by the end of the year we are on track to recycle 14,400 pounds of trash. This isn't as much as we hoped, but we still see lots of students putting paper and plastic in the trash. With more education and awareness, we should be able to meet our goal easily next year.

Jacob: We are also looking at starting a compost pile next year so we can recycle food waste. It's pretty amazing because when I was a freshman we didn't recycle anything!

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