Meetings: Mondays at lunch in Room 440 ---- New members are ALWAYS welcome!
GET INVOLVED! We have many great events planned! And remember, any work done after school, on the weekends or during the summer qualifies for cummunity service hours!
Current/Upcoming Events: (click on each for more details)
The Climate Reality Project Canada (Climate Reality Canada) is a non-profit organization that serves as the Canadian component of a global movement of more than 4,000 diverse and dedicated volunteers from around the world. These volunteers have been personally trained by former US Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore to educate the public about the science and impacts of climate change as well as solutions to address the climate crisis.
This will be a team event, taking place on Thursday, April 19, 2012 after school.
If you are interested in joining one of Dunbarton's teams in climbing the CN Tower to raise funds for the World Wildlife Fund, please contact any member of the Environmental Club, or see Mr. Gordon in the Science office.
And AFTER the event, Mr. Gordon reported:
Congratulations to the Dunbarton Environment Club on another successful Earth Month event!
Last night nine members of the Dunbarton Environment Club - Katee Ezra, Doug Buttigeg, Rafiq Suleman, Shamik Sen, Aiden Westcott, Darren Yip, Christian Tropiano, Rowan Peterson and Mr Gordon - raised over $2400 to support of the World Wildlife Fund's climate change research as they climbed the CN Tower.
Way to go everyone!
And a special congratulations to Doug Buttigeg who has set a new DHS record by climbing to the top of the CN Tower in anamazing 14 minutes and 32 seconds!!!
Dunbarton High School, in partnership with Environmental Stewardship Pickering and Science North, will be hosting a community event on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 at 7 pm to mark World Water Week. The event will be centered around a screening of the film "Mysteries of the Great Lakes" and will include displays from students and community groups, a showing of the film, and time for questions and networking afterwards.
Please encourage your friends and neighbours to attend, bring your families, and come ready to be inspired to action this spring.
Author Tom Rand will be visiting Dunbarton and speaking to several classes on the morning of Wednesday, March 7, 2012,
Tom's book, "Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit: 10 Clean Technologies to Save Our World" is one of this year's White Pine non-fiction selections.
From his website: "Tom speaks publicly about the issue because it is his belief that we have yet to have a serious, public conversation about the threat of climate change, and the economic opportunites afforded by the global transformation to a low-carbon economy."
More information about Tom and his book may be found at his website: www.tomrand.net
This year's homeroom challenge is based on the White Pine non-fiction book "Kick The Fossil Fuel Habit" by Tom Rand.
The library has 3 copies - sign one out today!
The topics are:
solar power
wind power
geothermal energy
biofuels
hydropower
oceans
smart buildings
transportation
efficiency and conservation
the energy internet
GOOD LUCK !
Part One results are as follows:
Grade 9: first place: 1KU - Ms. Murphy's homeroom
Grade 10: 3-way tie for first place: 2LB (Ms. Barth), 2MM (Ms. Miller) and 2JC (Mr. Cowden)
Grade 11: first place: 3CC - Ms. Campbell's homeroom
Grade 12: 2-way tie for first place: 4AC (Ms. Cole) and 4KL (Ms. Jewer)
Overall Leader: 1KU
Congratulations to these homerooms and thank you to everyone who participated. Stay tuned for the second half of the quiz which will run in the first week of April. We will determine winners for Part Two, as well as for the overall challenge.
Environmental Club has A LOT of upcoming events that we would love you to be a part of:
Earth Hour - earth hour is on Friday March 25th! Be prepared to turn out the lights in your classes from 10-11 am to conserve valuable energy. Members from the environmental club will be walking around to check if all lights are off, as well as calculating the amount of energy saved from this one hour of no lights. The results will be announced sometime Monday March 28th.
CN Tower climb - we would like DHS to give their support to the group of students and 6 teachers travelling to Toronto to climb the CN Tower in order to support the WWF (World Wide Fund for nature). If you would like to support our group of Spartans you can go to the WWF website and search for Dunbarton High School under Teams to make a donation .Good Luck Team!!
Tree Planting - Our club will be adding a few new trees to the "Campus Forest" and in the future will need some volunteers to help plant these trees. For more information about this come to one of our meetings on Thursdays. The goals of these trees will be to provide shade for people and cooling the building and increase biodiversity.
Front of School - Mr. Vandendool and Ms. Cornale are working to make the gardens in the front of the school look like they are visible and alive! They would appreciate volunteers to help.
Summer Watering - During the summer we all know it can get very HOT! The trees around the school need to be watered. Every year we have volunteers from the Env club helping to water the trees twice a week, every week during the summer, but it can be a big task, especially with new trees coming. The typical schedule is that you would come in with two other people for about 3 hours on either a Monday or Tuesday and possibly a Friday (depending how hot it is). Volunteer Hours may be obtained!!!
Bike Raffle - For the morning of Tuesday April 19th, between 8 - 8:45 am everyone that is either walking, carpooling, biking or taking the bus to school will recieve a raffle ticket for a bike, generously donated by Durham Sustainability, valued at $500. Members from the Environmental Club will be located at all, if not most of the school entrances with tickets. This is a great opportunity to challenge yourself to "go green" for the morning or even the whole day. Walking to school is a great way to show your support for Earth Month at DHS, and you could possilbly get a bike of $500 value for free! Get involved and be Active!
This year for Santa Cause, Environmental club sold delicious Christmas tree sugar cookies, Ms. Fields cookies, and mini cupcakes, on Thursday, December 2nd, and Friday December 3rd. They were sold in the mornings by the main entrance, with prices ranging from twenty-five cents for cupcakes and fifty cents for cookies, which came with a cool tip on how to easily stay environmentally friendly this coming year without having to make drastic changes in your life.
Every year Dunbarton High School strives to raise money for The Salvation Army, and Environmental Club is happy to be a part of that! This year we raised close to fifty dollars; not bad for fifty cent cookies and twenty-five cent cupcakes!
You may have noticed in between north and south campus one of the newest additions to Dunbarton High School, thanks to the Environmental Club. The outdoor classroom was officially constructed in June of 2010, and is available to be used by all. Students at lunch or on their free time are welcome to hangout in this environmentally friendly classroom. Teachers can even sign up their classes on the resource booking system to use the new area.
The classroom consists of:
7 new red and sugar trees
15 rocks to be used as seating
Woodchips on the ground so it doesn’t get muddy
1 trash can to ensure that students clean up after themselves
Funding was generously provided by TD Friends of Environment Foundation, Evergreen, DHS SHSM program, donations from parents, and DHS environmental club Carbon Tax fundraising. Friends of the Rouge also donated 2 trees.
Thank you to everyone who helped out and helped make the classroom possible!
The Environmental Club recently got a grant to help Dunbarton go one step further in becoming environmentally friendly. The grant allowed for 6 new solar panels to be installed in the summer of 2010. The solar panels preheat water for hot water in the eastern half of the school.
DHS is proud to be the 1st school in the Durham District School Board to have solar panels!
All of these tasks will allow you to obtain Community Service Hours and become a better, "greener" neighbour!
Tree Planting - Our club will be adding a few new trees to the "Campus Forest" and in the future will need some volunteers to help plant these trees. For more information about this come to one of our meetings on Mondays. The goals of these trees will be to provide shade for people and cooling the building and increase biodiversity.
Summer Watering - During the summer we all know it can get very HOT! The trees around the school need to be watered. Every year we have volunteers from the Env club helping to water the trees twice a week, every week during the summer, but it can be a big task, especially with new trees coming. The typical schedule is that you would come in with two other people for about 3 hours on either a Monday or Tuesday and possibly a Friday (depending how hot it is). Volunteer hours may be obtained!!!
