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O.S. Geiger – Environmental Champions in Action

Located in the community of Castleridge, O.S. Geiger School is one of the most multicultural schools in Calgary. Principal, Susan McAllister, and teacher, Pam McQuaid have been instrumental in fostering the growth of an environmental consciousness in the school and community. The school has been involved with several hundred environmental action projects over the past year that resulted in children developing understandings about how our veryday lifestyle choices affect the natural world. The school’s “Green Club,” a group of students and teachers, are taking small steps to change student and home thinking about the environment.

O.S. Geiger is a K-6 school which has been involved with the SEED Foundation’s Green Schools program. After more than 100 environmental learning projects that have taken place in the school, O.S. Geiger is now reaching for the Jade level of the Green School program. The engagement of teachers, parents, and students has been nothing short of spectacular at the school with environmental learning. Here is a list of some of the environmental learning projects that the school has been involved with:

Students and teachers collect used paper and then load the paper in a teacher’s vehicle, who then drives the paper to recycling bins at a local grocery store.

The administration office and teachers have made a concerted effort to only do double-sided copies on the photocopier. This has led to a notable reduction in the paper being placed in the fibre recycling stream.

Teachers were asked to create 5 lesson plans that focused on sustainability. This resulted in over 100 student lessons that teachers then shared with each other.

O.S. Geiger participated in the CBE Earth Hour on April 22, 2008 – the whole school shut off lights, computers, printers, and everything else that was plugged in. During Earth Hour, students and teachers discussed energy conservation. A focus on taking the learning home was encouraged (i.e. turning off the coffee pot when not being used). The school was thrilled to discover that they had the second-highest percent reduction in electricity consumption in all CBE schools during Earth Hour!

Students and teachers participated in a ‘Swish and Squish’ campaign of milk jug recycling. Over 1100 milk jugs were collected, and subsequently kept out of landfills.

Beverage container recycling also takes place at O.S. Geiger. The school has decided to use the money from this recycling program to sponsor tiger conservation through the Calgary Zoo.

O.S. Geiger is a community where all students live within walking distance to school. Despite this, the staff were noticing a high prevalence of parents dropping their children off in the morning, at lunch, and after school. Because of this, one Grade 3 classroom decided to have a “Walk to School Challenge” for one week. During the challenge, a significant reduction in parent drop offs was noted. In this classroom, 26 of 29 students walked to and from school for the duration of the challenge.

O.S. Geiger is directly under the flight path of many large planes taking off and landing at the Calgary International Airport. To engage students with the natural world, ecological processes, and the effects of pollution, one Grade 4 teacher planned a “What Does Melted Snow Look Like” lesson. Students found that after the snow melts, there are many fine grains of sand and dirt in the melt water. Connections between the water, air, and soil cycles and human lifestyles were explored through this investigation.

In an effort to divert materials ending up in a landfill, one Grade 3 teacher started a vermicomposting program, where students care for the worms by feeding them organic materials leftover from snacks and lunches.

The “Green Club” created a “Turn it Off” challenge for classrooms to encourage turning off computers and lights when leaving a room. Classes were checked periodically and those that were vacant with computers and lights shut off received a certificate of commendation. Over a few weeks of the initiative, nearly all classes were receiving certificates to recognise their efforts.

Earth Day marked a number of special environmental initiatives, including partnering with a local fast food restaurant. During the week of Earth Day, students decorated several hundred paper bags, used by the fast food restaurant to pack food orders for customers. Conservation messages and pictures were drawn and written on the paper bags. Then on Earth Day, the restaurant used these bags for their take out food orders. Customers commented on the impact of the students’ work on their lifestyles.

The school is also involved with natural world remediation and improvement projects including a school yard garbage pick up event. Garbage from the event was used to create “Garbage Monsters” as a school entrance display. The message of the display was “don’t let the garbage monsters take over our school!”

Engaging students with the natural world has also been a very important outcome to the school’s programs. For the past three years, grade 6 students have participated in Outdoor School, a 4 day residential experience in Kanananskis Country where students are immersed in the flow of life of the natural world.

The Calgary Board of Education is fortunate to have staff like Susan MacAlister and Pam McQuaid, who are environmental champions. These gifted people help to reduce the ecological footprint of the Calgary Board of Education. Bravo to the staff, students, and parents of O.S. Geiger School for the significant environmental learning, relationship building, and environmental planning and action taking place at their school!

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Web Administrator: L. Diemert
Last Modified: September 24, 2011