Through the Alcoa W5 project, students from the Tecumseh High School in the USA decided to fundraise, recycle, and collaborate to build an outdoor learning space for the whole school to use!
The idea for the outdoor classroom came about when the school found a source with over 5000 pounds (over 2200 kg!) of bottle caps. After some discussion, it was decided to recycle the lids and kickstart the construction of a learning space outside. First, students gathered, sorted, and packaged all the plastic lids and took them to a recycling plant in exchange for five picnic tables. This activity created awareness of the importance of recycling and the students saw with their own eyes the amount of litter in their local environment.
“Sorting bottle caps was simply gross. And monotonous. And time consuming. But the kids stuck with it, and now they want to start a plastic bottle recycling program at our school!” - Kori Kutzler, Tecumseh High School
But it didn’t end there! The school sent 90 letters out to their local community asking for donations to support the project. The students put a lot of time into writing the letters, and each time they received money, they were thrilled and honoured! They realized how much support they had, and it inspired them to work harder.
With the help of parents, community members, and the school corporation’s maintenance team, two Community Action Days were spent building the outdoor classroom. They lined the allocated area and secured it with railroad ties, added gravel across the entire area, and set up the picnic tables. They also created a path through the nearby woods and installed a bridge to allow access over a drainage ditch.
“It has been amazing to see all the caps recycled and turned into tables. We are so proud to have an outdoor classroom and path through our woods that came from such hard work. We worked all school year for this, and now the whole school can enjoy the space.” Payge Johnson – student, Tecumseh High School
With this project, students spent a lot of time outside whether it was during litter-picks or the construction of the outdoor area. They saw first-hand the power of reusing instead of creating waste. By collaboration with different organisations and experts, they also learned about natural irrigation, native and invasive species, and habitat restoration.
The Alcoa W5 project of Tecumseh High School support the following SDGs:
