Jobs on Dorm

My Local Contemporary Environmental class has assigned me the duty of controlling recycling on dorm. Mr. Smiley made recycling on dorm easier by giving us three bins; one for trash, one for recycling and one for comingled recycling. Students on dorm still fail to separate their trash from recycling and comingled or vise verse. My Job is to educate them more on the importance of recycling so much that they will change their acts and also informing them about recycling being sustainable and how it protects the environment we live in. I plan to come up with ways in which they could do this in fun ways that they would enjoy participating in. In the past we have put up a lot off signs educating them about the importance of recycling but it seems like they do not read them so I plan to hold hall meeting to educate them myself. What I am also trying to do is to reduce the amount of trash being generated on halls and to come up with an easier method of dumping the trash behind Scott dorm. The main goals of this project are:

- Christchurch plans to recover more resources by creating a recycling program

- Christchurch hopes to reduce the landfill waste created by our community

- Generate less trash on dorm

- Separate cans from trash

- Separate co-mingled from trash

- Separate co-mingled from cans

- Less trash and recycling on the ground behind Scott dorm

I also plan to:

- Get covers for recycling bins on dorm so that people would not be able to throw trash into the can’s recycling bin because of the round hole for cans only

- Holding hall meetings to educate the people who live on hall about the benefits and importance of recycling because they might not read any of the information or the signage we put up so I would have to educate them in person

- Provide better and colorful signage which will draw the attention of the people living on dorm

- Getting hall prefects and hall dorm parents involved in this so that they will also take charge of insuring that the right thing is being done on their hall all the time.

Some reasons why recycling is of great importance to our community here at CCS and the world in general are:

- Recycling reduces waste products in landfills

- Recycling helps reduce global warming and pollution

- Recycling saves energy

- Recycling also helps save money

- Recycling reduces harmful mining

Hakeem Chothia

Bee Project progress

The Christchurch school Bee Project is making progress. The students in charge of the bee project are Brendan McCarthy, Braden Young and Cody Ruse. The bee project is in the planning stages and is far from having bees on campus. So far there is an action plan and what has mainly been done is getting all the stuff to get the bees. The things needed as far as equip goes are a bee box, 2 bee suits, and a smoker, bees and people to manage the bees. The beekeeper across the street has offered his help with getting the bee project going. He is mainly going to teach students how to bee keep. To keep bees is a low maintenance project since they can survive by themselves and have for millions of years. The bee’s main contribution to the school will be the increase in pollinators causing an increase in the schools garden vegetable production. Then the honey produced is a little side bonus which is in high demand because if you eat local honey it will help your body build up a tolerance and then allergies are not as bad due to the tolerance it is also very delicious.

By: Brendan McCarthy

Spring's Back!

Few students know of the garden tucked away near the lower soccer field. Although it is unknown among the majority of the student population many of the teachers and students involved in living campus are dedicated and quite familiar with the garden. Mrs. Showalter, Mrs. Cola, Mrs. McGinnis, Mr. Kempe, and Mr. and Mrs. Smiley are some of the most directly involved. After the small garden was created, over the years over eight beds have been cleared. Lettuces, arugula, peas, garlic, and asparagus have been planted. Recently a small fireplace was constructed along with a trellis and structures for peas to grow.

Right before spring break Mr. Smiley introduced his Local and Contemporary class to a project in which every student would chose a project on campus and fix its shortcomings, add new aspects, or just continue to sustain it. Among options of cans for oysters and the trail Lilah and I chose the CCS Garden, which we were introduced to during winter Living Campus of 2011.  We chose it due to its clear sustainable solution. The growth of food that doesn’t need to be fertilized, sprayed with pesticide, or transported. Growing local vegetables that are almost free makes it economically beneficial. Allowing natural filters, habitat creation, the removal of carbon, and the creation of oxygen makes it environmentally positive. The CCS garden also meets the criteria of the three E’s. It meets equity because it has a positive effect on health and provides healthy foods.

 

In addition to the clear goal of producing food for family weekend and eventually for the dinning hall, we hope to stabilize the existing trellis, build small cold frames for winter growing, paint a sunset on side of the green shed, build a large stock of garden tools, construct a sturdier fire place area, and clear space between beds. Our goal is to make the garden more popular as a hang out place. I can truthfully say that each time I leave the garden I am laughing. In order to make the garden more productive we have decided to create a garden club as a sect of Sustainability Task Force.  Each Wednesday the group would meet to work on one or a combination of the goals. Having a club would help to reach the unlisted goal of having more people connected to nature and also allow student to learn the simple aspects of gardening.

               

By: Anna Shaw

Super Insects

Super Insects

Cody Ruse

I, along with my partners Braden and Brenden, am currently working on a project for my local contemporary environmental issues class. The subject we chose to work on is bees. So far we have learned that bees are extremely important to crops as well as wild plants such as flowers and trees. In addition, the honey that bees produce can help reduce the intensity of certain allergies. Our ultimate goal is to have a working bee hive on the Christchurch campus, that can be maintained by students and faculty. We have found out there is a beekeeper near the school that is willing to help us start a beehive.

The honey bee situation is much like that of the Chesapeake Bay oyster. Oysters are very beneficial to the bay because they provide food, habitat and they naturally filter the water. However, the current oyster population is only one percent of the population when watermen first started harvesting them. That is why today, there are many people and organizations devoting their time to re-populate the bay with oysters. On the other hand bees are much like oysters, except they live on land and they do not filter air or water. However they do an excellent job of pollinating gardens. There are individuals nationwide that keep bees as a hobby, in addition to the massive commercial beekeeping companies. As knowledge of the benefits of beekeeping spreads, so does the number of beekeepers. I believe that a beehive on the Christchurch campus would do more then just help our garden, it would make a statement. If a highschool environmental science class can can fully recognize the benefits of honey bees and succesfuly keep a beehive, then anyone can.

The main challenges we face, have to do with with manpower. Bees are not particularly difficult to keep by they do require an investment of time by their keeper. We have still not worked out who will be available to take care of the bees because they require attention year round and can die without it.

Overall bees would be very beneficial to our community. The only drawbacks would be that they do require year round assistance and there is of course the risk of stings. If we can find willing volunteers our whole campus would benefit, especially our garden.