Awesome Green Club in Action at École acadienne de Truro!

I remember well my first engagement with Mme Colette’s Grade five class at École Acadienne de Truro. It was a beautiful sunny morning on November 10th, 2016. It was on this day that I joined a class virtually for the very first time using Google Hangouts. Sitting in front of my computer, I was amazed and excited to be able to virtually visit students in Truro, almost 200km away from my home in Lunenburg, and reduce my ecological footprint. My colleague Pamela, who lives in Truro herself, joined the class in person to help facilitate activities for an energy engagement. For more ideas for virtual engagements offered by Green Schools NS, check out our resources here (see Slideshow section). To book a virtual engagement for your class, contact your Engagement Officer.

This past autumn, the Green Club was born at École acadienne de Truro with Mme Colette’s support and guidance (see attached photo of the six Green Club members, L-R: Colby, Sofia, Erica, Mariana, Brooke & Abigail). Their very first initiative was called “Operation Sherlock,” where for ten consecutive days, they checked which teachers would leave the lights on when they left the classroom for lunch. Two weeks later, the Green Club used a bar graph (see photo) to present their results at an assembly, making sure to hide teachers’ names on the graph. They observed and presented the following results: Two teachers always turn their lights off, and three teachers almost always turn their lights off. Another teacher shut their lights off 50% of the time.

According to Mme Colette, the Green Club had a lot of fun with Operation Sherlock while also demonstrating the importance of energy conservation for a greener planet. They even presented a Certificate of Good Energy Behaviour to the greenest teacher with hopes of encouraging other classes to follow suit and turn out their lights when leaving the room.

It would be interesting to do a second survey later in the school year to see how these green efforts pay off. That could be a new challenge for the Green Club! For more energy efficient ideas in the classroom, check out the Lights Off Monday slideshow and support package, the Classroom Energy Checklist and the Energy Navigators Activity!

The Truro Green Club has already started another green initiative this year. They are celebrating National Sweater Day on the first Thursday in February (February 1, 2018). They promoted this green event around their school with posters that invite their entire school community to wear a warm sweater on February 1st, National Sweater Day. During this day, the school custodian will lower the school’s temperature by two degrees Celsius to help conserve energy! All schools in Nova Scotia, as well as families, are invited to celebrate this energy efficient day! The Green Club will also be serving delicious, fair-trade hot chocolate to students who will bring their own reusable mugs from home; what a great way to waste less, celebrate winter in good company, and protect our beloved planet all at once! For more ideas on how to celebrate National Sweater Day at your school, check out our Sweater Day slideshow and support package.

We look forward to hearing about all the new green accomplishments and initiatives within the Green Schools Nova Scotia community in 2018. Check out the map of our community here. Another big congratulations to the Green Club at École acadienne de Truro- they are an inspiration!

~ Marlène Le Bel,
Engagement Officer