Go Green! Schools
Recognizing the importance of promoting environmental awareness amongst youth, the Go Green! Initiative has created the Greater Lansing Environmental Innovation and Leadership Award which is aimed at encouraging individuals, schools, summer camps, youth organizations and public interest groups to promote environmental awareness and encourage positive community involvement.
Award Recipients:
Woodcreek Magnet School for Math, Science, and Engineering
Woodcreek Magnet School is the first recipient of the Greater Lansing Environmental Innovation and Leadership Award because of the students' and faculty's commitment to promoting environmental responsibility. Woodcreek Magnet School has demonstrated its environmental leadership through an innovative and creative composting project. The school used an unheated worm composting bin for several years as a way to divert uneaten food from the waste stream. However, when the worms froze in the winter of 2005, the students decided that their current system wasn't working. "It caused a trauma because all the students thought of the worms as their pets," said Diane Graham, an engineering and science specialist at the school. The students quickly teamed up with Urban Options and MSU's College of Engineering and to develop a solar heated worm bin. There are currently two solar panels on the south side of the school collecting heat from the sun, which is then sent through the pipes into the worm bin to prevent the compost from freezing.
In addition to the solar worm bins, Woodcreek serves as a community drop-off site for recycling, and has a student recycling team responsible for the sorting and bagging of recyclables. The students have also built a bird sanctuary as well as a pond and butterfly garden, which have been certified as wildlife habitats by the National Wildlife Federation.
