Thames Valley District School Board Participating in Earth Hour

Friday, 27 March 2015 05:19

Students are getting a jump on Earth Hour by holding their own observances during school hours.

This afternoon students in the Thames Valley District School Board will participate in Earth Hour. Environmental Education Coordinator for Thames Valley District School Board Erin Mutch, thinks it is a wonderful way to integrate information about the environment with the addition to what students learn in school. "We have many of our schools ready to participate in Earth Hour tomorrow afternoon between 1-2 o'clock. Earth Hour is an initiative that is global, and we promote it on the Friday before the global day which is Saturday. This allows students not only the awareness, but it also helps them to recognize how fortunate we are to have electricity at the flick of a switch in Ontario."

The schools participating this afternoon will encourage students to always think about how to better save the environment, and Mutch is hopeful that students will take something away from this special day. "For our students it's really a wonderful integration of environmental education many of our schools are certifying eco-schools. They have a classroom lighting assessment where you can calculate out how many lights are in your classroom, then how that translates into how many trees you will need to plant to pull that carbon dioxide back out of the atmosphere. These are some really neat connections for our students to make."

Mutch is enjoying that the school board is doing their part for the environment and how more resources are always available. "There are a number of resources on our Thames Valley web page by grade, as well as whole school activities. It will really depends what the class and students are interested in doing with that time." Currently the only eco-schools in Woodstock that are completing the environmental requirements is College Avenue Secondary School with a bronze rating and WCI with a gold rating.