“Spread the seed”

Challenge your CAS kids to get a focus on Earth Day, April 22.

Task : Get everyone in your learning community to start thinking in terms of water consumption.

Invite the CAS group to spread a ‘seed’. Ask them to invite your whole learning community – students, teachers and parents – to track their water consumption using technology that the students are already are engaged in.

Set this challenge for CAS students of senior and junior grades (Grade 12 & 11), to push this project through ‘buddy grades’ that are invited or targeted. For example 2 or 3 x Grade 12 kids will monitor and encourage one class of a lower grade, for example Grade 3, in your school in regards to their fresh water consumption over set time e.g. a week, a weekend, a day.

Model this first with the whole CAS group, then their task is to ‘spread the seed’ to other grades.  Students can adapt a tool like Survey Monkey www.surveymonkey.com – to then tabulate their own questionnaires of each class to share a form of anecdotal evidence of engagement.

Whole school results could even be then presented at an assembly documented through photos/slideshow that the CAS students have created.

Read about Mindy Weimer (http://www.grandchallengestories.org/stories/story/107). Her website is a tangible background of spreading this ‘seed’. http://watsanaction.org/

Finally, here’s a pdf that Mindy created with practical lessons and ideas to support your work.

http://www.watercentre.org/projects/attachments/SustainableHygiene_4.pdf