Brookside School included in new film





STUDENT Q&A—Marika Ramsden with Schools of Sustainability takes answers from students as partner Cory Brown writes then down at Brookside Elementary School on Nov. 13. The Schools of Sustainability team is cycling down the California coast to present to schools educational programs on sustainability, recycling and reuse. The team is also producing afilm about their trip.

STUDENT Q&A—Marika Ramsden with Schools of Sustainability takes answers from students as partner Cory Brown writes then down at Brookside Elementary School on Nov. 13. The Schools of Sustainability team is cycling down the California coast to present to schools educational programs on sustainability, recycling and reuse. The team is also producing afilm about their trip.

Like most schools in Oak Park, Brookside Elementary School is going green.

The district’s focus on sustainability gave Brookside the opportunity to take part in an educational project called Schools of Sustainability, or SOS, which will result in a documentary film based the workshops presented by the project’s leaders.

Marika Ramsden and Cory Russell Brown of Sebastopol, Calif., began a bicycle journey on Sept. 8, leaving from Crescent City in Northern California. They are riding along the coast till they reach Imperial City near the state’s southern border on Dec. 9.

Along the way, Ramsden and Brown are presenting educational workshops to students at schools on their route.

The duo arrived at Brookside on Nov. 13 to meet with school officials and the students in Becky Koch’s fifth-grade class to learn about the school’s ecological efforts.

Ramsden earned a master’s degree in sustainable development with a special interest in education from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Brown is a graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design and has worked in filmmaking. He recently worked on a documentary about the possible closing of several state parks.

At Brookside, the two led a workshop about green living before handing out video cameras to the students so they could record some of the projects on campus.

“Spending the morning with Brookside Elementary students was a huge delight,” Ramsden said. “Every student had an excitement for learning more about how to take better care of our planet and great sustainability ideas for the future.”

Brown said the experience allowed him to “relight his fire” for the project.

“Sometimes the fuel starts to run low, and then you have an experience like the one we did with the 32 highly engaged Brookside Elementary students, hearing mumblings like, ‘This is starting to get really cool,’” he said.

Ramsden said she and Brown were particularly interested in the hydration stations where students refill their water bottles rather than tossing disposable plastic bottles. She also enjoyed learning about the school garden and the zerowaste lunch program.

Koch said the SOS program was rewarding for her students, who enjoyed showing the filmmakers their efforts to preserve the environment.

Koch said each school has a USAgain bin where clothing and other fabric can be deposited. Items that are in good condition may be donated to a nonprofit for reuse, while torn and tattered goods are used for school projects.

Ramsden was impressed with the students’ efforts.

“We were shown how all the students separate out their trash into compost, landfill, liquids and recycling,” she said. “They were the first school we have visited that had a USAgain container. . . . It is great to see a whole school community really focusing on reducing their landfill waste in every way they can.”

Koch said environmental issues are embedded in every school subject.

“It’s taught throughout all that we do,” she said.

Brookside Principal Sara Ahl said all the schools in the district support zero waste.

“Our students have become quite apt in separating their waste into multiple bins,” she said.

At Brookside lunch remnants are composted, which is then used in the garden and other landscaping.

Since the beginning of the school year, students have been using reusable, washable lunch trays, which Ahl says has reduced waste significantly.

“We are looking forward to moving to reusable forks and spoons . . . and we hope that the trial of this program at Brookside ultimately benefits the other Oak Park schools and leads to implementation districtwide,” she said.

Students can also participate in a lunchtime program wherein they create artwork by reusing discarded materials.

Ramsden said the SOS project is creating a “different type of story—one that is empowering, hopeful and full of exciting ideas.”

She said the name of the program is based on the mayday call from ships that are in trouble at sea.

“In this case, our ship is our giant spherical spaceship we call Earth, which has been sending us an SOS call for some time now,” she said, adding that the program shows children that they can use their imaginations to find solutions to environmental problems.

“We want (students) to know that if they have a really outrageous idea, there might be someone out there that will know how to make it happen,” she said.

One 10-year-old student suggested capturing the kinetic energy from students jumping on trampolines to produce power for their school.

“(This is) a perfect example of stacking functions, where students are getting exercise and generating power at the same time all while having fun,” Ramsden said. “Or how about wind turbines that are shaped like giant flowers and have solar-powered leaves? On two separate occasions we’ve had students imagine pedal-powered buses for getting to school. The more kids that ride the bus, the easier it is to get to school.

“The documentary film will showcase these ideas and much more,” she said.

The film is tentatively set to be released in late 2015.

For more informat ion, visit www.facebook.com/ schoolsofsustainability.


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