Alexandra Davis, a 7th grade science teacher at HMS, is sponsoring two teams of students, “The Green Machine” and “The Tree Frogs,” who have been competing in a national contest geared to encourage middle and high school students to develop and implement and environmental programs that will positively impact the community.
“The Green Machine is focused on improving recycling in our schools,” Davis said. “With help from Alcoa Mt. Holly, new recycling bins were added in the Hanahan Middle School cafeteria. We now recycle over 200 plastic bottles and aluminum cans a week.”
To improve classroom recycling, students created the slogan "Don't be mean, be green!" and hung reminders over classroom trashcans, Davis said.
Students also participated in the Hanahan Homecoming parade with the creation of a "green" golf cart to spread the message. Recycling brochures were distributed at the Homecoming game (over 100), and recycling bins were brought to concessions for the game.
The second team, The Tree Frogs, focused on switching to reusable bags and littering, Davis said.
“Students handed out free goodies to the Hanahan community with the help of sponsorship from Alcoa Mt. Holly and Berkeley County Water and Sanitation,” Davis said. “Over 300 reusable bags were distributed to at Hanahan Middle School and Hanahan Recreation Department.”
Giveaways also included key chains, pencils, stickers, brochures, and magnets that the students created, Davis said. In addition, the community was encouraged to switch to reusable bags when they shop to decrease the amount of plastic bags entering the landfills. Recycling was also encouraged.
“At Hanahan Middle School, students were challenged to wear green to show their pledge to be seen being green,” Davis noted.
More than 70 percent of the students participated school-wide, with the winning homeroom receiving a prize.
The Lexus Eco Challenge, created by Lexus, the luxury automaker, and Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education and media company, was designed to educate young people about the environment and to inspire them to create a better world, according to the website.
Lexus and Scholastic will choose 16 winning teams nationwide. Each team will receive a total of $10,000 in grants and scholarships.
All winning teams from this challenge and one other initial challenge will be invited to participate in the Final Challenge for a chance to win one of two grand prizes of $30,000 in grants and scholarships.
