If you want to join this great network of YES! teams, contact us at sayyes@yesmn.org
2019-2020 YES! Teams
Carlton High School
- Attending the Race 2 Reduce Summit
- Replacing shower heads in their locker room with low flow units
Discovery Woods Montessori – Brainerd
- Participating in Grades of Green Waste Campaign to reduce plastics
- Touring Crow Wing County Recycling, Landfill and Hazardous Waste site on March 4
- Menu planning for shopping and making a plastic free lunch
- Exploring how to reduce plastic use in their school and how to inspire others to reduce plastics in their community
- Making the connection between reducing pollution and improving water quality for their local lakes
Edina High School – New team!
- Hosting the Project Earth Youth Climate Summit on Saturday, April 25th from 10 am to 2 pm at their school where local and state government officials will be attending
- Installing a 12-panel solar array at their school to increase public awareness of renewable energy within the community, commencing a 2-year fundraising campaign by Project Earth to raise over 20,000 dollars
- Campaigning to have the student body implement effective composting and plastic bag reduction
- Planting a pollinator garden on school grounds to improve bee habitat
Harbor City International School – Duluth – New team!
- Planning to buy planters for the school to have fresh fruits and vegetables for their lunches
- Encouraging others to participate in the recycling and composting initiative
- Potentially going to Lake Superior for a clean-up event
Hopkins High School – New team!
- Developing a campaign to encourage the student body to be effective at recycling and composting waste within the school
- Completing the B3 Benchmarking assessment of the school’s energy performance, identifying opportunities for saving energy for their school
- Planting pollinator flowers on school grounds
Lac qui Parle Valley High School
- Installing a rain collection system including large storage tanks for their greenhouse to eliminate having to filter their school’s water through a reverse osmosis water filtration system
- Restoring 38 acres of land at their school to native prairie
Mankato West High School
- Replacing energy-hungry fluorescent tubes with LED lighting in the school’s common areas as part of the team’s “RetroLED the Hallways” project
- Designing a marketing campaign to educate the community about economic and environmental benefits of lighting changes that anyone can make
Minnetonka Vantage Program
- Developing a research project to learn what the barriers are for why people do not invest in roof top solar when it can provide a steady return on investment that is much better than the average stock market return
Minnewaska Schools – New team!
- Working on reducing school lunch waste
- Informing fellow students about the waste they produce and how to recycle and compost
- Researching how to get solar panels for their school
- Participating in aquatic invasive species surveying/kayaking this summer
New London-Spicer Middle School
- Planning their Outdoor Science day where they teach elementary students about nature
- Planning their Energy Week where they spread energy conservation awareness
- Recycling Christmas lights
- Harvesting lettuce in their greenhouse every week for school lunches
- Trying to figure out how to conduct water testing on private lakes
New London-Spicer High School
- Continuing to work on their parking lot prairie
Northern Lights Community School – Warba
- Working with area experts on aquatic invasive species projects
- Continuing to monitor food waste in their cafeteria and water usage at their hydration station
Pelican Rapids – New team!
- Assessing their school & community to find out what water quality and other environmental challenges are present
ROCORI (Cold Spring/Richmond) High School
- Sorting and gathering recycling for the entire middle school and high school every Friday after school
Rockford Middle School – New team!
- Completing the B3 Benchmarking assessment of the school’s energy performance, identifying opportunities for saving energy for their school
- Creating a prairie restoration/pollinator garden on school grounds
- Improving waste reduction/composting/recycling at their school
Royalton High School
- Purchased water quality testing kit
- Working with MPCA to test and monitor Platte River and other local water bodies
- Toured Camp Ripley’s Environmental Center to learn about land and water conservation
Sleepy Eye (Public and St. Mary’s) High Schools
- Collecting and reporting data on water quality through the Friends of the Minnesota River Valley “River Watch” Project and MN Pollution Control Agency
- Teaching about environmental issues to elementary students during Earth Week classroom activities and to the public during Sleepy Eye’s annual Party in the Park event
- Reducing waste by improving recycling systems in the school catering
- Creating interpretive signs about pollinators and native plants to display at prairie plots established by the YES! team
- Visit our website to learn more about our team!
Springfield High School
- Collecting old or non-functioning holiday lights from the community to be recycled, reducing waste and encouraging energy-efficient alternatives like LED lights
- Recycling pop tabs collected throughout the year in bins located in the elementary and high school offices
- Collecting used mascara wands to be recycled by the Appalachian Wildlife Refuge, which uses the wands to remove fly eggs and larva from animal fur and feathers
- Building observation bee houses to be installed near school and possibly sold with an informational pamphlet
- Collecting donations to help wildlife affected by Australian wildfires
Virginia High School
- Working on a group video to encourage fellow students to recycle
- Participating in the adopt-a-drain program and possibly stenciling drains to raise awareness around storm water
Voyageurs Expeditionary High School
- Creating a school garden and bee habitat
- Reducing electricity usage in their school
- Working with their school to reduce waste by recycling more
Westbrook-Walnut Grove High School
- Planning and implementing a school rain garden with native plants in order to improve water quality by reducing parking lot runoff and water erosion
- Making bracelets out of colorful plastic bags and selling these upcycled accessories at sporting events in order to raise money for developing the rain garden
World Learner – Chaska – New team!
- Building birdhouses from reclaimed materials to improve bird habitat on school grounds, as well as at student homes.
- Planting pollinator flowers on school grounds to improve bee habitat
- Installing a hydration station to reduce the use of plastic water bottles
- Completing the B3 Benchmarking assessment of the school’s energy performance, identifying opportunities for saving energy for their school
Yellow Medicine East High School
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Creating a pollinator garden by the school
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Getting containers for recycling markers and plastics
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Creating a sign for their community garden and orchard
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Getting a water storage system for their community garden
“It feels good to make a difference in the environment and bringing positive changes to our school.” –YES! Student
