WASHINGTON — Four middle school teachers in the DMV have been selected as WUSA9's ECO Challenge winners for the environmental project ideas they submitted.
Each winner was awarded $5,000 each for their respective schools from Washington Gas to continue their work.
Every middle school that applied received free professional development and instructional materials on topics related to the environment from the Smithsonian Science Education Center.
Middle school teachers had until April 23 to submit their classrooms/projects for consideration, explaining why their project will benefit the environment, how the students will be involved, and a brief timeline of how they were going to accomplish their project before early June.
The four winners and their projects are:
Ben Steinberg at Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan in Washington, D.C.
Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan (CHML), a public school located in Northeast D.C., is working with DDOT Urban Forestry Division and Forested to create an Urban Food Forest (UFF) on its campus as its environmental project.
The ultimate goal of the UFF is to teach students how to grow and harvest edible native plants that they can eat or even sell at a weekly farm stand the school runs after classes and potentially at local farmers' markets.
Every middle school student at CHML will be involved in the food forest, with each student responsible for bringing a plant from seed to maturity.
Students will also participate in garden workdays where they build beds, fill beds with soil, plant, water, weed, and harvest.
The project initially kicked off in the fall of 2022, when wine-cap mushroom beds and fiddlehead ferns were first planted.
Forested provided the UFF’s master plan design.
During the winter, school officials built the garden beds and by spring the established seedlings were planted in hopes that by early June they will be ready to harvest.
School officials say with the help of WUSA9's ECO Challenge, they hope to bring awareness to the UFF and encourage other schools/organizations to create UFFs throughout the District. As well as encourage the community to visit the UFF and attend the student-run farmer's markets.
WUSA9 Chief Meteorologist Topper Shutt presented Teacher Ben Steinberg with the award on behalf of the school.
"Thank you so much. We have a number of programs going on with our outdoor gardens including raised beds, orchards, mushrooms, etc. Part of the Montessori experience is having kids be involved with what it means to grow things, to sell things, to be part of those process throughout the season," said Steinberg.
Temitope Balugun at G. James Gholson Middle School in Landover, Maryland
Balugun's students are working on a project to help slow down the ramifications of global warming in the environment, by coming up with an innovative way to save water.
"One of the major ways that we have noticed water being misused is through individuals taking baths, and showering on the average a individual taking a bath will use 35-50 gallons of water, and taking a shower uses an average of 17 gallons of water," said Balugun.
Due to the consequences of global warming, her class says saving water is pertinent to future generations.
They worked to develop a system that limits a person's water use in the shower or bath by developing a reservoir system that cuts off the water after a certain amount of gallons are used.
Officials claim the reservoir will not refill again till the following day, which will allow one to use water more cautiously.
"Instead of you being able to use your water freely, whenever you want. it will limit the amount of water you're able to use per day," said Balugun after being presented with the award by WUSA9 Anchor Lorenzo Hall.
Courtney Osborne at Newport Mill Middle School in Kensington, Maryland
Through an 8th-grade capstone community project, the school has begun a partnership with IMPACT Silver Spring, a nonprofit organization, to create an outdoor green classroom space.
The project plan has three components: a food garden, a mental health meditation rain garden with pollinator plants, and the cultivation and sharing of hundreds of spider plants that will be placed in all of the rooms throughout the school to help produce cleaner air.
School officials say winning the ECO Challenge allows them to complete their plan before June.
"We have this open space right outside our media center that is kinda underutilized and under-loved. And Angel came up with this idea, with a connection with Silver Spring Impact, to create a sustainable food garden and to create a pollinator meditation garden and to create a composting section," said Osbourne. "This is something our school can have for decades to come."
Carrie Reardon at Manassas Park Middle School in Manassas Park, Virginia
A garden was established at this school to be used as an outdoor living classroom.
Due to COVID, the garden has experienced neglect by not being utilized during that time.
The project will re-establish the school garden and introduce students to real-life situations within the environment.
It will demonstrate the true nature of the scientific method as students use it.