It always amazes me how much I learn when presenting to elementary student audiences – and the experience presenting to Greenfield Elementary School at City Hall School emphasized this very point.

On Wednesday October 19, I had the opportunity to speak to a Grade 6 class about the “Ways to Green Our Lifestyles & Reduce Our Carbon Footprint”. The interactive session allowed the class to brainstorm ways in which they use energy at school, home, and through travel/transportation. Students identified a wide array of energy uses from the time they wake up in the morning to their travel in town and all their food needs. Recognizing the weighty footprint of motorized transport, the students explored means to reduce their carbon footprints and their impact on the natural environment.

 Through group interactive work, students brainstormed actions that they believed could reduce their carbon footprints at home and in travel patterns. Findings were reported to the larger group and conversation seemed to almost bubble over the time allotments for the program. To punctuate the program, a sustainability pledge was made by each student which made them eligible to enter their names into a prize draw for a notebook made from wire coat hangers, LP records and album covers.

I learned much through the lens of this Grade 6 class about sustainability and the enthusiasm for pro-environmental behavioural change among the inspired next generation of leaders.

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