Happy Earth Day!

Basic bridge

Portland is known for it's many bridges and many 3rd grade classes in the region focus on these structures as an important part of our city's history.  Did you know that Leonardo da Vinci designed a self supporting bridge in 1468 after being asked to create a simple bridge to cross rivers for troops to be able to assemble on site.  Genius.

Woodlawn earned awards from Eco-School USA

Morgan Park, a representative from the National Wildlife Federation's Eco-Schools USA program, visited Woodlawn to recognize the students for their environmental work. The Green Team earned the Bronze Award for their work on waste reduction and the current 4th and 5th grade students earned the Silver Award for their work raising salmon for the last two years. Finally our student GLOBE team was recognized for their work collecting weather data for NASA and NOAA. 

Way to go Woodlawn Wildcats!  Here is a video of the assembly:

P.S. Exciting news - Woodlawn's participation in the USFWS Salmon in the Schools program is being featured on the Eco-Schools USA website! 

Food Waste, Wasted Food

Last month, the Green Team conducted a waste audit and found out that in a typical day in the cafeteria, the school created: 

    - 48 lbs of trash

    - 5 lbs of plastic waste

    - 112.5 lbs of food waste

While part of our lunch message to the students is that "the most important thing to do with food is eat it", we do have an option through the school district to collect food waste so that it doesn't go straight to the landfill. If we chose to start this program, we need some community members to help during the lunch hour for the first few weeks to help the students learn what can go into the food waste bin and what needs to go in the garbage. If you are interested in volunteering to help with this project, please contact me. Thank you!