2018-2019 YES! Teams
If you want to join in this great network of YES! teams for the 2019-2020 season, contact us at sayyes@yesmn.org
Carlton
- Placed compost bins in their cafeteria
- Installed auto light switches and LED lights in bathrooms to save energy
- Worked to switch from plastic to reusable, metal silverware, which will happen in fall 2019! Met with the school board to make this happen
- Researched a local lake restoration project
- Put together a poster contest for middle school students regarding recycling, threats to pollinators, and water quality. Winners from each grade received reusable water bottles and had their posters put up around the school
- Planned and set up their school’s spring cleanup, including all students and staff
- Put together a fundraiser selling “Save the Bees” t-shirts and pollinator friendly seeds in order to raise money for organizations that help research Colony Collapse Disorder and to support the conservation of pollinators
- Influenced teachers in their school to assign a project to students that included researching the importance of water conservation and interviewing someone outside of the school regarding the subject of water conservation and providing them with education on the matter
Discovery Woods Montessori
- Planned and planted a rain garden on their school grounds
- Exhibited at the Environmental Education Exhibition
- Made environmentally-related posters for the local Art in the Park event
- Visit their website to see more!
DREAM Technical Academy
- Worked to construct a rain garden on the Minn West Technology Campus
Forest Lake
- Storm drain stencil project: 6 students stenciled 15 drains in Lakeside Park, Forest Lake. The stencil read, “Dump No Waste; Drains to Lake”
- Received the Minnesota Department of Education nomination for US Green Ribbon School award and submitted application
- Consulted city architect to help formulate a plan to expand their existing pollinator garden and possibly build a rain garden to collect runoff from the school in the future
- Hosted lectures on wastewater engineering from the city architect and from YES! Coordinator Tom McDougall on energy
- Expanded and continued to run the school’s recycling program
- Collected hundred of pounds of holiday lights for recycling
- Planted over 250 seeds in recycled milk cartons to give away on Earth Day
- Hosted a free screening of Wall-E to alert local kids and adults to the dangers of ecological crisis
- Planned a public climate convening event via Youth Convening Minnesota
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Entered a tree with recycled ornaments into the Marine Holiday Tree Festival!
Glencoe-Silver Lake
- Built a Supermileage vehicle for the 31st annual Supermileage Challenge at Brainerd International Raceway. Students learned how to maximize gas engine efficiency and reduce emissions through building this vehicle
Lac qui Parle Valley
- Continued to plant and harvest in their deep winter green house
- Partnered with Pheasants Forever to restore 35+ acres of grasslands at their school into native prairie
Mankato West
- Ran the numbers for a potential LED lighting retrofit for the school including reaching out to multiple contractors for estimates and hope to continue this project to completion next fall
- Focused on monitoring water quality and water data from the local watershed in Rasmussen Woods
Minnetonka (New Team)
- Designed and constructed an early season, low energy use green house
- Designed and constructed a small scale aquaponics station for growing lettuce and basil all winter long
- Demonstrated to home owners and renters how to grow starter plants and seasonal crops at the local scale
- Visit their website to see more!
Moorhead – Youth Educational Services
- Completed water quality assessments with local experts to determine the greatest needs in the Moorhead area
- Designed and built planter boxes, which they then planted with native plants to attract pollinators and to illustrate how native plants can improve water quality
New London-Spicer Middle School
- Continued to plant and harvest in their deep winter green house where greens get served at lunch
- Raised money to install LED lights in the district office entrance
- Recycled over 200 pounds of holiday lights
- Hosted an energy week at their school to promote energy conservation
- Taught outdoor science to 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders
- Participated in Aquatic Invasive Species surveying and education this summer
- Visit their website to see more!
New London-Spicer High School
- Had over 100 5th graders help plant 500 native prairie plants in the team’s parking lot prairie
- Donated $500 to the NL-S Middle School team for LED bulbs
- Participated in Aquatic Invasive Species surveying and education
- Visit their website to see more!
New Prague
- Collected water data from 4 different taps in their school and tested with water quality test kits
- Based on the water quality tests, they designed and built water filters and tested how this changed the water quality
- Used hydroponics to grow over 80 pollinator plants and natural insecticide plants, which were sold at their Community Green Day
- Amended soil at 3 Agriscape Landscapes
- Hosted their second annual Community Green Day
- Planted an Agriscape/pollinator garden at Ney Nature Center that is used as an educational tool for visitors
- Planted 2 additional agriscapes in their town
- Completed an energy audit of their school
- Planted container gardens and sold them at their Community Green Day
- Built over 20 bee hotels
- Designed and built vertical gardens
- Up-cycled wood pallets
Northern Lights Community School
- Implemented a water hydration station
- Educated their peers about water topics including speaking about the Rusty Crayfish and how to stop the spread of aquatic invasive species
- Tracked water usage in their schools
- Completed a shoreline restoration project on Ice Lake to clean up garbage and debris from the Grand Rapids Fairgrounds
- Sent all food waste to a local farmer to diminish the waste going to landfills
- Worked with the DNR to raise and release Rainbow Trout into local waterways
- Continue to aid their school in recycling as many materials as possible
Parkers Prairie
- Designed and planted a school garden full of native plants
- Completed a human impact study on Lake Adley, a local lake, including water testing and a biodiveristy index of the health of the lake
- Visit their website to see more!
ROCORI (Cold Spring/Richmond)
- Installed a 4-panel solar panel for their school courtyard
- Continuing school wide recycling, collecting items from bins weekly and educated staff and students about what items are and are not recycleable
- Once again collected shoes (417 pounds worth!) for reuse in their community (at ROCORI Community Closet) and donation to World Wear for those shoes not needed at the Community Closet
- Installed a hydration station
Royalton
- Over 30 students gathered to learn how to eradicate buckthorn. Then they spent over 2 hours pulling out buckthorn from the roots and hauling it away. Students participated in a competition to see which group could pull up the most buckthorn and which group pulled the largest buckthorn plant
- Placed signs on trails in school forest
- Learned how to properly transplant a tree
- Cleaned the walking paths in their school forest
- Maintained their used oil collection site
- Attempted to build an electric bicycle
Sartell-St. Stephen Middle School
- Created six peer educational lessons on water quality and aquatic invasive species which were then used by students and teachers
- Assessed learning by their peers after their lessons, showing that their peers gained valuable knowledge from these lessons
- Learned about the Little Rock Lake drawdown
- Continued their efforts to reduce waste at their school
- Visit their website to see more!
Sleepy Eye (Public and St. Mary’s)
- Continued their prairie restoration project at the Sleepy Eye Golf course
- Collected 737 pounds of holiday lights for recycling
- Educated their community about light bulb options
- Started milk carton recycling in their school cafeteria
- Hosted Earth Week activities in their school using the MN Energy Center’s energy trailer
- Collected water quality data for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in conjunction with Friends of the Minnesota Valley. One day a month for eight months, students collected water quality data from a county ditch and the Cottonwood River, both tributaries to the Minnesota River.
- Researched, received money for, and built bee houses as a suitable nesting spaces for mason bees
- B3 Benchmarking all the buildings in Sleepy Eye that the city owns
- Built a pollinator garden in their community, planting over 600 grasses and forbs! Their team has a three year commitment in maintaining the garden for success of plant survival, weeding, and planning for future educational signage, species identification, a walk path with a bench for the residents to view once the growth shows sustainability.
- Collected money for a clean water project in Zambia
- Visit their website to see more!
Springfield
- Grew lettuce and spinach in their school greenhouse using a hydroponics system
- Collected 341 pounds of holiday lights for recycling
- Worked to add two more hydration stations to their school. This is still a work in progress!
- Visit their website to see more!
Westbrook-Walnut Grove
- Collected clothing to donate to those who need it, collecting over 130 articles of clothing (over 70 pounds!) from 64% of the student body
- Hosted a blackout day where the school shut off any unnecessary electricity and collected data prior to and during the blackout day to see how much energy and money they saved
- Continue to recycle bottles and cans from their school. They donated the proceeds to their school’s robotics team to help them with their expenses!
- Are planning a rain garden at their school to help with better control of water near their school, less runoff, and to improve the visual appeal and and use of the field by their school.
- Received a $3,000 grant from the Remnick Foundation to build their rain garden and upgrade their recycling center
- Collected holiday lights for recycling
- Gave presentations to all 5th and 6th grade students in their district about recycling
- Recycling education at sports events, which increased those properly recycling to nearly 100%
- Hosted a community talk where students taught those in attendance about ways to save money on heating, energy, and water. They also gave away objects to help get people started on this journey such as a low-flow showerhead, smart surge protectors, LED lightbulbs, and outlet insulation.
- Visit their website to see more!
Wrenshall
- Created a supermileage vehicle, starting with a trike design-reaching an estimated 100 MPG
- Created a solar boat for the solar boat regatta this year
- Plan to present their vehicle and boat at various events in their school and community
Yellow Medicine East
- Installed a hydration station in their gym, which required them to get approval from their Superintendent and school board, research the best location and type of station for their school, and raise funds for the installation
- Continued to plant and harvest in their community garden and worked to get elementary school students planting there as well
“It feels good to make a difference in the environment and bringing positive changes to our school.” –St. Cloud North Junior High YES! Student
