Grade 5 students were truly inspired by a visit and presentation from local, award-winning documentary filmmakers Jen and Grant who made The Clean Bin Project.
The girls watched the movie prior to the visit as part of their inquiry into sustainability. They had many questions for the guests about the motivation to live for a whole year garbage-free, the challenges of not buying anything and what they learned from the experience. For example, a plastic fork that is used for about 10 minutes takes over 500 years to decompose. Grant shared that one crazy idea can have a huge ripple effect on how you continue to live your life and how people around start to change their behaviours. Students reflected on how their thinking about garbage and plastic was transformed by this exposure.
We are excited to watch Jen and Grant’s next endeavour, the film Just Eat It – A Food Waste Story. Apparently 40% of our grown food is thrown away in perfectly edible condition while one in nine people do not have enough to eat in Canada. Jen and Grant ate discarded food for six months, spent only $200 dollars and even gained 10 lbs !
Thank you to Mrs. Martin for arranging this authentic learning opportunity.
Julie Harris
Vice-Principal, Jr. School