Written by Taylor Templer, West Central Coordinator On June 24th I took four students from the New London-Spicer YES! teams out kayaking on Lake Andrew in New London to survey for aquatic invasive species (AIS) and test water quality. To prepare for the summer surveying, students attended a session on water quality at the 2019 YES! Fall Summit where they learned about water quality and how to
Sam’s Farewell
Written by Sam Horner Hi everyone, this is Sam Horner, the Northeast Regional Coordinator for the YES! Program. In 2014, I accepted a position with the Minnesota Green Corps and this was my first introduction to the YES! Program. I worked with Jim DeVries to expand the program in the Northeast Region of Minnesota. It was an exciting time and we did a lot of great work to make the program a
Students Get Charged Up About Electric Vehicles
Written by Deb Groebner, Southern Coordinator Students and coaches from YES! teams across Minnesota gathered online May 12th, 2020 to learn about electric vehicles and clean transportation during What will you drive?, our first-ever virtual YES! workshop. The featured presenter was Jukka Kukkonen, an automotive engineer by training and founder of Shift2Electric and MN EV Owners. He is a rock
YES! Alumni Spotlight: Mars Rigenhagen-Risch
Mars was involved with the YES! Program at Lac qui Parle Valley High School his sophomore, junior, and senior years. The main projects Mars worked on were composting food waste from the school's lunches, getting filtration systems on the water fountains at the school, and installing solar-powered lights on the bike trail in Appleton. Mars notes, "I was exposed to a lot of important life skills
2020 State Championship Award Winners
On June 2nd, the 2020 Youth Eco Solutions (YES!) State Championship Award Ceremony took place via Zoom. YES! staff, coaches, students, and judges joined the meeting to celebrate and recognize teams for their outstanding work during the 2019-20 YES! season. The teams submitted final reports and were scored by a panel of judges in the following categories: Project Planning & Completion, Goal
2020 YES! Regional Judging
YES! regional judging looked a little different this year with so many cancellations for students, but YES! was happy to be able to still hold our spring competition. We made some modifications but one thing stayed the same, the students impressed the judges with their great efforts to improve our waterways and local environments. The teams submitted final reports and were scored in the following