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"Impacting rural education for students, rural communities, and their shared futures."

Buffalo Trail Public Schools - Passion Projects Powering Minds at Delnorte School

Updated: Mar 18

Delnorte school has been focused on student engagement and authentic learning opportunities. We have been the lucky recipients of the A+ for Energy Grant two years in a row, with focus on sustainable energy projects that engage our students. Last year we were also fortunate to receive a grant from Corteva to assist with this initiative. We built a Greenhouse and are continuing to have our students work towards making this a net zero greenhouse in regards to the watering and heating systems. Additionally, this school year we have tasked our students with finding their own personal passions and applying them to a variety of subject areas and sustainability.


Every Friday afternoon our entire school engages in multi-grade (Grades 7-12) groupings to work on sustainable energy Passion Projects. Students began the first semester by proposing initiatives such as building Solar Powered phone chargers, 3D printing a watering system for the greenhouse, sewing grocery bags out of recycled clothing, comparing energy outputs and costs of high-efficiency beauty tools with those that aren't considered high-efficiency, and building and maintaining a recycle and composting program.


Our students applied learning from ELA, Math, Social, and Science to develop project ideas, make project proposals, and enact their project ideas. We had a variety of projects undertaken by our Grades 7-12, with students learning and reinforcing curricular skills such as scientific method, calculating energy usage, understanding patterns, implementing processes for design, and on and on. Students were able to investigate and add to their repertoire, hands-on skills such as 3D printing, building, tool use, sewing, and more.


One of our groups decided that sewing was a skill they wanted to learn. They proposed using old fabric and clothing and reusing them to make reusable grocery bags that people in our community could purchase for use. Community member, Gayle Foyster, volunteered her time to teach our students how to interpret patterns and sew a particular pattern for a variety of grocery bags. The group requested people to donate materials and old clothing and our community showed up. We had bags and bags of material and clothing donated to the project.


Another group is looking at whether high-efficiency irons and hair dryers are saving us energy as their passion is cosmetology. They investigated a variety of different brands of curling irons, straightening irons, and hair dryers. This group measured energy consumption with each hairstyle by the amount of time. They used a power meter to help them measure their consumption and had to follow some scientific methods in order to compare their results.


A few groups expressed interest in 3D printing. One group worked with Mrs. Huppertz and Mr. Wasylciw (BTPS facilities) to plan and design a watering system for the greenhouse. They have been researching the best water containment systems and solar powered pumps with enough lift to be able to cover the sides of the containment system. Students printed a few items on the 3D printers as a learning curve and will continue to work on the watering and heating systems in the second semester during designated greenhouse times. The group has printed one of their fittings. Students are learning to use tinkercad to design their products.


Another group is investigating efficiencies in our school building and the impacts of people's behavior on our energy consumption. This group is working on letter writing to inform Buffalo Trail facilities on what they believe could have the most significant impact on our school building being more energy efficient in regards to drafts. They then decided to investigate composting and how composting could assist in our greenhouse project. The group has purchased a composting bin and has compost pails out around the school that get added to the bin for use in our greenhouse soil in the future. Our two other groups are actively working on building e-bikes and energy-producing bikes for charging a phone. Another group has built a solar panel cell phone charger in our service area, including information for their fellow students about the solar charging station. Yet another group researched and investigated various solar powered generators for efficiency versus cost and then determined the one they felt would best offset the use of energy from our 3D printing. So our 3D printers are powered by a solar generator, reducing the “carbon footprint” that the printing project has!


In this second semester, our elementary students are going to take on the challenge of connecting their passion with sustainability. I cannot wait to see what they come up with!! We plan to share all of our learning and project results, along with many of our other neat hands-on minds-on learning projects, with our school community at a celebration of learning nearer the end of the school year!



Story Sumbitted By: Rachel Miller, Principal, Delnorte School

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