What We Did!
Our team's top achievements were:
* Presenting our proposal to get a refillable water station on our campus in a timely manner to the district plant manager.
• Reducing the use of one-use plastic bottles on our campus by 95%! This was accomplished through the mission of receiving a refillable water bottle filling station on our campus. Students were encouraged to use the station by announcements in our weekly Town Hall.
• A poster contest was held to raise awareness of the importance of conserving water. Winners were awarded gift cards.
• Another important and fun achievement was creating bracelets to raise awareness of the importance of recycling reusing, reducing water usage. Our team studied budget of buying the beads and findings for the bracelets, the color representing the ocean and planet, and the efficiency of design. The bracelets were handcrafted and given to our students and staff and visiting community stakeholders.
• We linked to the "world of water" issues by participating with World Water Day to learn more about the impact of water saving measure globally.
* We collaborated with teachers in all core curriculums to tie in water conservation. The art teacher helped with the poster contest; the math teacher created a lesson on saving water and the impact it has on the economics of supply and cost; the science teacher developed resources on water impact of drought, recycling, gray water, and keeping our school's pond clean stressing the importance of filtration.
Why This Project?
We walked around campus and saw so many plastic water bottles-many not empty, littering our school campus. They were left in classrooms-strewn on the yard. It was disgusting and disheartening.
First of all, they were single use and not even tossed in the recycling bins that had become cracked. Secondly, there was so much water just left in the bottles. We knew that we had to do something that would have an immediate impact on our campus and the environment. The pandemic had interrupted the cycle of caring about our environment at school and people had gotten negligent. The success we had made before Covid was gone as many people once again turned to one-use plastic bottles. We knew then we had to do something! Reduce plastic waste directly attributed to water bottles/single use plastics. Then, as news of our worsening drought became evident, we knew we had to carry this farther to providing water and encouraging the use of refillable water bottles. This all motivated us to build a campaign to conserve water through: Recycling, Reusing, Reducing, and Retaining.
REFLECTIONS
Nataly
It is amazing to work as a team with different women. I am grateful for this opportunity with GBLA to meet other women and work collaboratively to let people learn about saving water.
Jacqueline
I really like being in this beautiful GBLA team because we care about people wasting water on our precious planet. We want everyone to learn not to waste water because every drop counts. I got to work with different women creating our projects and it was really fun.
Erica
Girls Build LA has taught me responsibility and looking out for one another. Everyone is dedicated and passionate about our cause. WE know it is important , so it makes us feel good about promoting water conservation.
Amaya
Girls Build LA has been a learning experience by teaching me to collaborate with others and that more heads are better than one! Â Girls Build LA has taught me to use my creativity in more ways than I expected, like to make people aware of environmental causes. Â I will be taking these lessons and experiences with me into the future.
Valerie
Girls Build LA was a group where I learned new things such as how to budget and market materials. I got to experience being part of a group and feel more involved in my school. I love to make jewelry and my idea to make bracelets became a big GBLA project that was great! Â It was so cool to use my creativity to promote environmental causes such as water conservation.
