We are excited about what these YES! teams accomplished during the 2016-2017 school year!
Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City (ACGC)
- Completed their tree trench project from 2015-16 and plantted shrubbery. This project was part of a $25,000 grant the team received through the Middle Fork Crow River Watershed District for a tree trench and permeable paver storm drain piping project at their elementary school.
- Collected holiday lights for recycling.
- Collected over 130 lbs. of shoes for WorldWear fundraiser.
- Planned an Arbor Day climate change education and tree trench dedication event.
- Replaced parking lot lights with LED
- Planned to replace paper towels in the bathrooms to hand dryers.
Belle Plaine
- This was a new team!
- Inaugural night hike to gain appreciation for creatures and nature at night
- Organized a sleep out to raise awareness of homelessness in winter
- Assisted Ney Nature Center with hands-on improvements
Carlton
- Recycling education, recycling program expansion, school garden
Cherry (Iron)
- Designed an electric go-kart. You can find out more information about that project here.
Discovery Middle School (Alexandria)
- This was a new team!
- Got a project ready to go.
- Did a lot of work on their school garden.
Discovery Woods Montessori (Brainerd)
- Learned how to teach water conservation to younger students in the school and provided tips on how to conserve water at school and at home.
- Built rain barrels to use for watering their school garden.
Forest Lake
- This was a new team!
- Stadium cleanup after homecoming football game.
- Planted a pollinator garden.
- Held a booth at Ag Day in their school to educate students on the importance of pollinator plants.
- Participated iin Lobby Day in the cities to present the need for funding environmental clubs and the environment in general.
- Worked toward reusable silverware for the school.
- Focused heavily on waste reduction through education, recycling, and reducing plastic utensil use in the cafeteria.
- Recycled holiday lights.
- Grew plants in milk cartons to give away at their Earth Day table.
- Had games and prizes at a lunch table for Earth Day to educate fellow students while having fun.
- Expanded the school recycling program to include 4 large bins in common areas and 48 more small blue bins for classrooms.
Glencoe-Silver Lake
- Built a supermileage car to compete with in the 29th Annual MTEEA Supermileage Challenge.
- Built a solar boat to compete with in the 25th Annual MRES Solar Boat Regatta.
Hutchinson
- Built a tiny house with off grid capabilities (i.e. solar panels) that will be up for sale in January!
- Built a solar boat to compete with in the 25th Annual MRES Solar Boat Regatta.
Lac qui Parle Valley
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Helped their watershed district create charts and graphs of water quality from previous years.
- Successfully planted and harvested in their green house.
- Collected holiday lights for recycling.
- Worked on a device to collect rain/snow from their greenhouse roof to use for watering plants to save money.
- Collected shoes for WorldWear fundraiser.
Mankato West
- Helped switch from styrofoam to compostable trays at a local elementary and middle school.
- Participated in community awareness for composting at the local Plate to Garden event.
- Finalized a composting education video for area elementary schools and providing education to the students on the process of composting.
- Worked to reduce waste in elementary schools in their region.
- Created an automatically updating website to display data from the school’s energy monitoring system.
- Prepared for additional hydration station implementation.
Melrose
- Built bat boxes to put in their community and raise awareness of declining populations of Northern Long-Eared bats due to White Nose Syndrome.
- Distributied new light bulbs.
- Examined the use of power in their classroom lighting.
- Continued to recycle in their school.
Minnesota New Country School
- Educated the elementary students with Xcel Energy kits
- Collected data to determine how much waste the school is generating
- Created an education program to impact and reduce their waste
- Worked on a recycling program and building a greenhouse for our elementary school
New London-Spicer
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Worked to reduce food waste in their school by meeting with the school nutritionist for new meal taste testing.
- Successfully planted and harvested in their green house.
- Planted apple trees in the spring
- Completed a vitality week which included awareness days for water, recycling, local foods, and ending with trivia.
- Constructed bat houses as an integrated pest management program.
- Planned to construct an outdoor education teaching dock.
New Prague ALC
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This was new team!
- Designed a rain collection system to water pollinator garden.
- Proposed playscape design elements for the local nature center.
- Planned a pollinator garden for the new school.
- Facilitated orienteering course at local nature center to integrate nature into an educational activity.
- Worked on energy conservation in New Prague schools by installing reminders to turn off lights when not in use.
- Raised funds for a rain garden by making and selling candles.
- Established a rooftop garden by building and placing garden boxes on the roof of the high school.
- Sold hot chocolate and seed bombs
- Researched where their recyclables went
- Recycled pop cans for money
- Created and distributed informational pages around their school
- Facilitated a shoe drive to be both donated and recycled depending on their condition
- Looked into replacing disposable silverware and installing milk dispensers in the high school cafeteria
- Collected old cell phones for recycling.
- Researched recycling categories to implement a common recycling station along with an informative slideshow
- Researched feasibility of a simple compost bin at their school
New Ulm Middle School
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This was a new team!
- Thought heavily about food waste at their school. Looked into having a ‘share’ table at lunch where unwanted fruits like apples, bananas, grapes, and oranges can serve another purpose.
- Raised awareness of how much recycling currently happens in their school and what they can do to improve recycling rates.
- Found that 27 rooms wanted bigger recycling bins, and worked to secure larger bins for each classroom.
- Researched and set up worm bins to create an alternative destination for food waste.
Northeast Range (Babbitt)
- Planned several environmental education activities to present to area elementary schools.
Northern Lights Community School (Warba)
- Water education for younger students, school garden
Rocori
- Collected recycling for the middle and high school on a weekly basis.
- Planned to install another hydration station closer to their gym.
Royalton
- Helped influence the interest in adding in a STEM designated teaching facility at their school.
- Created green classrooms within their school through recycling and energy improvements.
Sartell- St. Stephen Middle School
- Developed a water quality curriculum they will use to teach younger students.
Sleepy Eye (Public and St. Mary’s)
- Participated in local community events including Party in the Park and Corn Days to spread awareness of the YES! team and to educate the community on important environmental topics.
- Planted trees in their community.
- Looked into providing water quality monitoring for a tributary of the Cottonwood River.
- Collected school supplies at locker clean out day that can be reused.
- Sold hot chocolate, cider, and treats at the local Lights in Motion event and helped the organization set up.
- Monitored the staff appliances in the school district using Kill-o-watt meters to determine a fair cost per appliance based on energy use.
- Educated staff and administration about energy consumption of various appliances.
- Recycled holiday lights.
- Worked to reduce and eventually eliminate styrofoam use in the cafeteria
- Organized a movie and pizza night with the showing of Leonardo DeCaprio’s recent documentary
- Participated in the high school paper recycling pickup
- Entered B3 benchmarking data and determinined which buildings need assistance with reducing resource waste
- Recycled shoes through World Wear
- Utilized TerraCycle to recycle items that aren’t accepted into their current recycling system
- Provided education using an energy trailer from Get Into Energy for Earth Day
- Visited classrooms to educate students using energy kits for Earth Day
- Sold dirt cups and solar power made popcorn for Earth Day
- Created pollinator gardens as landscaping at the new convention center
Springfield
- Recycled holiday lights.
- Conducted a pop tab drive and will be donating all pop tabs collected to the Ronald McDonald House in Minneapolis, MN.
- Looked to install milk dispensers at their school
- Added recycling bins to each classroom and made an educational video to be shown to the school on using them properly. Signs will also be made to insure proper use.
- Created multiple videos on a variety of environmentally important topics for peers to view in class.
- Facilitated a 5K Fun Run with a trail that winds along past YES! projects and informational signage. Proceeds from this run went to water.org.
St. Cloud North Junior High
- Plantied a native prairie/pollinator habitat on their school grounds that will also serve as an outdoor classroom. Funding and education were provided through the Peasants Forever Youth Pollinator Habitat Program
Virginia
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This was a new team!
- Were interested in restoring shoreline of Silver Lake.
- Were interested in starting a composting program in their lunchroom.
Westbrook-Walnut Grove
- Upkeep on past projects including the wind turbine and oil recycling.
- Sorted through and documenting the school’s recycling efforts.
- Added recycling bins in the school.
- Hosted a volunteer day in their community where they raked leaves. Read more about that here.
- Gave presentations to elementary students about water use and conservation.
- Continued their solar pop can heater project from 2015-16 and tested different colors of paint to see which was more effective.
- Researched how to run a diesel engine on vegetable oil.
- Worked on creating a recycling depot where members of their community can recycle plastic bags, aluminum cans, and oil.
- Met with local service organizations to see what need the community had for sustainable projects
- Expanded pop tab collection into their community. There is currently 5-6 sites in the school and students placed 5 more in the community at local businesses.
- Inherited the city’s can recycling to expand their existing oil and plastic bag recycling station
- Conducted tire pressure checks on teachers’ cars and left a note indicating the environmental impact and gas wasted from improperly inflated tires.
Wrenshall
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This was a new team!
- Provided labor to construct a recycling center that will serve over 500 rural residents in Carlton County.
Yellow Medicine East
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Planned on transferring crops from the LED greenhouse at their school to the lunchroom.
- Planned to adopt a storm drain.
- Looked into installing another hydration station in their gym.
- Researched composting with worms from agriculture classes.
- Collected shoes for WorldWear fundraiser.
