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High School Students' Green Friendly Project Benefits Community

Lena Barnard

When the state of Washington introduced the Culminating Project as a new high school graduation requirement for the class of 2008, most seniors groaned as yet another obligation was added to their already hectic schedules. However, some seniors in the area found an environmentally friendly way to fulfill the requirement. Sixteen students worked for the better part of a year to make their schools more green friendly.

The group was mostly made up of students from Capital High School. They heard about the project through biology teacher Mike Jansen. He put interested students in touch with the project coordinator Erica Baker. According to Parker Townley, a participant in the project, "It was first come, first served, for students to sign up. It was full in one day." Baker was sponsored by the Pacific Education Institute (PEI), which, according to its website, wants to "expands students' opportunities to learn in real-world settings throughout Washington State."

Four groups were formed among the students. "Two groups designed rain gardens, one designed an environmental sustainability review of the school and one did a video archive of the project," Townley said. Both rain gardens were built on the Capital campus last spring after considerable research and planning. During the planning process, Townley said, they "worked with experts in the field and looked at examples [of rain gardens] in Seattle and Maryland." He explained that a rain garden is "a bio retention cell. Basically what that means is it takes in chemicals from parking lots, roofs and other surfaces and filters it out through natural means such as native plants." The finished product was about 250 square feet in area and a "vast majority of the plants used were native."

After completing the project, the students had the opportunity to use their new knowledge to spread awareness in the community. Through Baker, group members attended several environmental conferences to represent the student voice. The first was sponsored by Puget Sound Energy as a discussion between educators, students and administrators. They also attended an environmental conference sponsored by E3 (environment, ecology and economy) of Washington. "Its goal was to give a proposal to Washington on ways to improve environmental education" Townley noted, as well as to "make green living part of every day life. " This program is a relatively new concept and is still only temporary, but it may serve as an example for other states to follow.

From the building of the rain garden to presentations on environmental education, the project was a wonderful experience. The larger community benefited from the students' work to help shape the future. According to Townely, "Because we had to work through various organizations like the Olympia school board and local nurseries to complete our project, we were able to spread awareness throughout our area."

Lena Bernard has been a recent SPEECH member and volunteer, now off to college.

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