Earl Beatty’s Scientific Experiment!

What are those orange fences for? And how long will they be there? The answer lies in the hard-packed soil of Earl Beatty's slowly disappearing playing field. Despite proper installation, the small field at the back of the school couldn't take last winter's lack of snow cover and the frequent pounding of many happy feet. What to do - and should it be a replacement of the same?

The answer is, maybe not. So the test plots were born in the early morning of June 4th, 2010. The plots include different types of grass seed/sod with a protective layer underneath. The entire field is being watered in the evenings each day. The fence will help the plots get established, and will remain for four months.

Then, let the games begin! Let us see which area stands up the best to the heavy use our little field can give. We need every one’s help in recording and observing accurate results – fences need to stay until the end of September…and everyone can assist with observations throughout the Fall and then in the Spring of 2011 until June.

Thank you for your participation in this…I’m certain we all look forward to key results and answers to our disappearing field.

Ms. L. Ordubegian, Ms. Boudreau, Ms. Wallace, Ms. Laporte and Mr. Travers

The test area, June 4th, 2010.

The first test plot.

All three test plots.

Have you seen it? The Anti-Idling Banner is complete

The Junior EcoTeam (JET) has been working on completing the Anti-Idling Banner that was first started last year. They are pleased to announce that it is complete and hanging on the south wall of Earl Beatty. Thank you, drivers of Earl Beatty community, for supporting our lungs at work and our green initiative by not idling your car!

EcoTrivia at Earl Beatty

In April, Ms. Dafoe and her students wrote and ran an EcoTrivia contest that had the whole school playing! The students in Room 4 announced a new question each morning and by the end of it all, Ms. McKelvey's class was the big winner. They earned ice cream and an extra DPA session with Ms. Dafoe. Congratulations to the winners! Shout out to Room 4 for coming up with the trivia questions and running this fun event.

Earth Day Tree Dedication

Many thanks to the students on the Intermediate EcoTeam for writing a gracious and thoughtful dedication for the tree planting that took place at Earl Beatty on Earth Day this year.

Commemoration Eco-Schools Tree Planting Speech
April 22, 2010 at 10 a.m.

On behalf of the staff, students and the parents of Earl Beatty, we would like to thank the City of Toronto for generously donating these beautiful Tulip trees to our school.

We also want to recognize and thank our school parent, Liza, for organizing the tree planting ceremony on Earth Day. We appreciate the time you took out of your day to select the trees. It is very important that our schools, communities and our city continue to replant the dying trees for the future generations. They clean our air and give us oxygen. They provide us with shade and we even appreciate it from inside the school. In the fall, they will give us something wonderful to look at instead of concrete, they’ll give us a variety of warm colours to enjoy, and they’ll also provide animals with shelter.

Once again, we humbly thank our City of Toronto and our parent Liza for these beautiful trees.

Waste Audits at Earl Beatty

Everyone at Earl Beatty has been working hard to be environmentally responsible; we are, after all, a Gold-certified EcoSchool. But we know that we can be doing more for our community and for our environment so Earl Beatty has set its sights on becoming a Platinum EcoSchool.

Moving up to Platinum status involves carrying out audits of Earl Beatty's waste. This year, Mieke Foster, Waste Management Specialist at the Toronto District School Board, came out to help our Eco Green Team conduct our first one in January. Mieke made sure we had all the materials required to sort and measure our waste, including garbage and recyclables. The Eco Green Team, armed with gloves, bins, and scales, were charged with the task of sorting all of Earl Beatty's waste into 7 different categories, which included Recyclable Containers, Recyclable Paper, Other Recyclables, Food Waste and Soiled Paper, Untouched Food (?!), Real Garbage and Reusables.

The results of January's audit were very interesting. The team found that the Earl Beatty community was throwing out 26 kg of material into the garbage bin and of that 26 kg only 9.2 kg of it was actual real garbage! These findings tell us that much of the material we throw out can be recycled, composted, or reused!

The next audit is happening next week. Hopefully, with the introduction of the litter free lunch program, the Good On One Side (GOOS) paper bins in each classroom, and the Eco Green Team's recycling awareness campaigns, the amount of material going into garbage bins has been diverted to recycling bins or being reused (like, pencils, pens, erasers and paper that hasn't been written on both sides) and that the amount of real garbage that Earl Beatty generates has declined.

A big kudos goes out to the staff and students that conducted the waste audit. Researching what goes into our garbage and recycling bins is important work that helps us out figure out what our next steps are to a greener, healthier school!


The Eco Green Team, Mieke Foster and Ms. Laporte ready to sort garbage!

A giant pressure gauge found in the garbage...you never know what you're going to find!

The sorting bins

And their respective bags.

Mieke Foster helping the team sort.

Garbage pile!

It's a dirty job...

but somebody's gotta do it!

A full, untouched lunch found in the garbage.

Pencils and pens that can be reused.

1.3 kg of unopened food

Food waste and soiled paper weighed in at 16.2 kg.

o.8 kg of recyclable containers (including many water bottles and yogurt containers)

1.1 kg of reusable things

9.2 kg of real garbage (landfull = things that cannot be recycled, reused or composted)

What's Up with the EcoTeam?

What’s Recyclable and What’s Just Plain Trash?

The Primary EcoTeam meets every other Monday at lunch. These students have noticed that people are confused about what items can be recycled or reused and what needs to be thrown out! To end the confusion, these dedicated eco-students have been working on recycling presentations for the school. They have visited many Earl Beatty classrooms to set the record straight on what is recyclable and reusable and what is plain trash.

Trees Can’t Do All the Work, We Can Help!

The Junior EcoTeam (JET) meets every other Friday at lunch. They have been hard at work completing an anti-idling banner that was started last year. Cars burn gas and give off toxic fumes. These fumes contribute to the greenhouse gas effect and climate change. JET hopes to have the banner ready for display soon.

JET at work on the anti-idling banner.

Recycling Posters and the Tree Planting Dedication

The Intermediate EcoTeam meets every other Thursday at lunch. Like the primary team, they have noticed the confusion about what is recyclable and what is not. These students have created and posted signs throughout the school informing students, staff and parents what we can pop in the blue and grey boxes and what we must throw in the garbage.

The Intermediate team also worked on writing a dedication that was recited at the Earth Day tree planting ceremony on April 22nd.

Good work, team, for keeping the Earl Beatty community informed about environmental issues!!

Earl Beatty's Earth Day In Pictures

Tree Planting Ceremony...

And the schoolyard cleanup....

April 22, 2010: Earth Day at Earl Beatty

Wednesday, April 22^nd marks the 20^th anniversary of Earth Day in Canada. Earl Beatty students will be participating in a variety of in-class and school-wide activities. The entire EcoTeam will be involved in a tree planting ceremony on the south side of our school. Two tulip trees will be planted in our community. The tulip tree, also known as the Yellow Poplar, is native to parts of Ontario and is known for its height, it being the second-tallest in North America (second only to the Giant Sequoia). Tulip trees can reach heights of 45 metres and can live up to 300 years so Earl Beatty can enjoy the shade and beauty of these trees for years to come!

Links:

Toronto.com: Celebrating Earth Day in Toronto

Ministry of Natural Resources: Ontario’s Plant a Tree Challenge: The Tulip Tree

The Tulip Tree: Info at Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry site

Earth Hour 2010: Earl Beatty plays a part in the global campaign to slow climate change

The Earl Beatty community was proud to participate in the World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour. The TDSB celebrated ‘cutting the power for just one hour’ on Friday, March 26th, from 2 – 3 pm. A number of energy-saving actions took place such as turning off classroom lights, unplugging TVs, data and overhead projectors, DVD players and VCRs, having computers on standby, and where possible, turning off hall and office lights.

The TDSB reports that as a result of energy-saving efforts in our schools and offices electricity consumption was down 23.09% during 2 and 3 pm. While this decrease in consumption didn’t reach the 2009 figure of 27.8%, this year’s energy-savings were still above 2008’s figure of 22%.

At Earl Beatty, we continue to spread the word about environmental stewardship and engage in actions that minimize our impact on the environment.

Links of Interest:

TDSB Report on Earth Hour: Energy Consumption Down

World Wildlife Fund Canada: Earth Hour

March 11, 2010: The Great Big Crunch at Earl Beatty

On March 11, 2010, the sound of crunching was heard through the halls as Earl Beatty joined students across Canada in The Great Big Crunch!

In its third year, The Great Big Crunch is a ‘day of apple education’ ending in a ‘Great Big’ synchronized “Crrrrrunch!” of students biting into their delicious AND nutritious apples. Organized by FoodShare as part of its Field to Table School Program, this event not only kicked off Nutrition Month in March but worked to encourage our students and teachers to learn and talk about healthy snacking, eating locally, composting, local and global food systems and more.

FoodShare reports that over 50,000 students from across Canada joined The Great Big Crunch – as well as students from Amsterdam and Morocco!

To find out more about FoodShare’s school and education initiatives, click here.

December 2009: Earl Beatty Introduces Litter Free Lunches

One of Earl Beatty’s goals this year is to become a Platinum certified EcoSchool. Becoming a Platinum certified school entails focusing student and staff efforts on minimizing Earl Beatty’s waste and energy consumption. With the goal of minimizing waste in mind, The ECO/Green Team came up with the idea of encouraging staff and students to bring litter free lunches and snacks to school. A litter free lunch is one in which nothing needs to be thrown away. Here are some tips for packing a litter free lunch:

What’s Hot!

Retro lunch kits/thermal lunch bags

Reusable plastic containers

Reusable drink bottles

Personal beverage mugs

Snacks in minimal wrapping

Recycling

What’s Not

Brown paper bags

Plastic sandwich bags

Disposable single servings

Polystyrene cups

Overpackaged, overpriced snacks

Making garbage

Did you know?

It takes a very long time for disposable products to decompose in our landfill sites. For example:

Disposable Materials: Years it takes to decompose

A paper napkin: 1 year

A milk carton or juice box: 5 years

A newspaper: 5 – 7 years

A grocery bag: 10 – 20 years

A tin can: 50 years

An aluminum can: 500 years

A water bottle: 700 years

A Styrofoam plate: 1 million years or longer

A glass bottle: 1 million years or longer

Please help Earl Beatty do all we can to help our environment and its natural resources. Make a commitment to reduce waste, reuse and recycle. Start today by packing a litter free lunch!

October 2009: Budding Botanists: More Planting at Earl Beatty

Through the Joan Grys Award* and a successful city of Toronto greening application**, Earl Beatty was the happy recipient of 1000 (that’s right! One thousand!) free bulbs to plant in the schoolyard. Once again, Earl Beatty students found themselves getting their hands dirty in the name of environmental stewardship. Good work everyone!

* The Joan Grys Award was received by Earl Beatty for work that was done by the school and several Parent Council Greening Team Eco Committee members. This work involved the planning and building of a butterfly garden from previous years located in the south-west area of the schoolyard and the newly designed outdoor classroom.

** The application was submitted by Parent Council Greening Team Eco Committee members to the City of Toronto Clean and Beautiful Fund.

May 2009: Planting Native Plants at Earl Beatty

Last spring, Earl Beatty students, staff and parents planted several native plants in the schoolyard as part of the ongoing schoolyard naturalization project. This initiative was financially assisted by Toyota Evergreen Learning Grounds, which supports local, sustainable greening projects in schoolyards, parks and communities across Canada. Much appreciation and admiration to everyone involved for their hard work that day.