The school community had the opportunity to participate in two Climate Action Days; Energy Day on Dec. 6 and Waste Day on Feb. 7, and some students, though not most, took part.
Climate Action Days are part of an initiative in the New York City (NYC) schools to bring the issue of climate change and climate solutions into the curriculum. According to NYC schools website, there are four scheduled Climate Action Days, each with its own theme. The idea is that schools create activities that are fun for their students and show them that they can make a change.
“Ms. Kesten, Ms. Rebore and Ms. Sabbagh trained with the Climate Education Leadership Team (CELT) and planned QSI schoolwide actions for each of the four days,” said Climate Solutions teacher, Adam Zaid. “Basically their plans are asking the whole school community to try and change their individual behaviors a little on each of these days.”
Students that take the Climate Solutions class and those in Bin Cops hung fliers and posters around the school to spread awareness about the upcoming Climate Action Days.
For Energy Day, there were different things students and staff could have done to change their behavior such as, turning off the lights, unplugging devices when not in use, walking or taking public transportation to school, using technological devices less and turning down thermostats in their homes.
“Yeah, I didn’t use my Chromebook as much and I didn’t turn my lights on as much. I drive or take the bus, yesterday I took only the bus.” said sophomore Lily Callahan.
Freshman Kara Eterno, a student in the Climate Solutions class, only half heartedly took part by doing things with her class, but not on her own.
“I use transportation [to get to school], both bus and car but it depends on the day, usually car though. But, no, I didn’t take public transportation on Energy Day,” Eterno said.
Like on Energy Day, on Waste Day, there was a flier with a menu of options students could choose from to participate and there was a “share table” in the cafeteria. The share table was set up against a wall in the cafeteria and monitored by students from Climate Solutions and Bin Cops. The point of it was for people to put their unopened apples, crackers, or other packaged food on the table instead of throwing it out. Then, students who wanted the food could take it.
“The share table response was very good. More than 50 apples ended up being saved from the landfill or compost. They were brought up to the table in the Main Office and were gone by Friday morning. People took them to eat,” said Zaid. “Students in the cafeteria were very interested in the Share Table and actively participated by putting their unused food, it was apples on that day, on the table.”
On both days, there was a pledge table where students could make pledges about certain actions they would take on that specific day. On Energy Day, most students pledged to turn their lights off.
On Waste Day, most students pledged to do things like contribute to the share table, take just what they can eat and use the compost bin for food waste. Some pledged to reuse and recycle their things, while only one student pledged to inform students around the school about the Climate Action Day.
