Go Green Challenge Handbook - SFU.ca

GO GREEN CHALLENGE TEACHER AND STUDENT HANDBOOK

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TABLE OF CONTENTS GUIDELINES Section 1 Section 2 Section 3 Section 4 Section 5 Section 6 Section 7 Appendix

– Challenge Overview – Administration of Your Project – Starting Your Project – Strengthening Your Project – Submitting Your Project – Enhancing Your Social Media Score – Attending the Beyond the Bag Showcase – Media Release Form, Judging Criteria

MISSION At Banner Bags, we educate individuals to adhere to environmental sustainability in their every day lives. The Go Green Challenge strives to inspire students to expand their knowledge beyond the classroom and challenge themselves to make an impact in their communities.

SECTION 1

CHALLENGE OVERVIEW The Banner Bags Go Green Challenge handbook is a complete guide to developing your school’s project for the competition. It provides instructions to help you register, start, strengthen and submit your project. Follow along with our Banner Bags Secondary School Case Study throughout the handbook to further develop your understanding of each section. Please read the handbook all the way through, to ensure you are familiar with all aspects of the project process.

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IMPORTANT DATES January 1st January 15th February 1st March 1st March 10th March 16th

Accepting Online Registration Form Accepting Video Submissions Social Media Challenge Begins Deadline for Video Submissions Social Media Challenge Ends Banner Bags Showcase Go Green Challenge winners will be announced at the Showcase.

PIZZA PARTY PRIZES 1ST AND 2ND PL ACE

Win a pizza party for all members on your Go Green Challenge Team! Ensure that the number of students on your team registration is accurate, so we can provide the correct amount of pizza.

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SECTION 2

ADMINISTRATION OF YOUR PROJECT

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DEFINE YOUR PROJECT TEAM. a) Teacher Sponsor - All teams need a teacher sponsor in order to be eligible to compete. The teacher is not obligated to be actively involved in your project but must serve as a representative for your school’s submission. b) Determine your team - Create a team roster and solidify the number of people participating in your project. There is no limit for team size, however each team member must be actively involved in the project process.

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FILL OUT AND SEND YOUR MEDIA RELEASE FORMS. Each participant in the Go Green Challenge must have a completed and signed media release form. This form can be found in the Appendix at the end of the handbook. Once your media release forms are all complete, contact your Banner Bags Education Coordinator and they will pick them up from your school!

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REGISTERING YOUR PROJECT. Please register your Go Green Challenge project as soon as you have defined your team and your project. This allows the education team to provide you with any support you need along the way, and to promote your school’s involvement on our social media platforms. You can register by filling out our online form at http://goo.gl/6gBced. Don’t worry if your project changes over time, just update us with your progress along the way!

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CASE STUDY:

BANNER BAGS SECONDARY STRIVES FOR MORE!

After participating in a Banner Bags environmental sustainability presentation, the students at Banner Bags Secondary school were inspired! They wanted to take their new knowledge beyond their classroom banner project, and the Go Green Challenge was the perfect opportunity to do so. They weren’t ready to define their project yet but wanted to be involved, so the students approached their textiles teacher, who was more than happy to support their project. Soon, they advertised their project to their fellow classmates, created their own team roster, and signed up the project online. They even decided to appoint a team captain who would be responsible for corresponding with and updating their Banner Bags Education Coordinator!

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SECTION 3

STARTING YOUR PROJECT

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PL A NNING YOUR PROJECT. To begin planning for your project, create a web diagram that identifies: a) Available Waste b) Available Resources Once you have determined the waste and resources you have to work with, brainstorm a list of possible projects that you could create. Select your best ideas and have a vote within your team!

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IDENTIFY IF IT SATISFIES JUDGING CRITERIA. It is very important that your project meets our judging criteria, as you will be competing against other schools in BC. The judging criteria can be found in the Appendix at the end of the handbook. If there are sections of the judging criteria that are not fulfilled, use this as an opportunity to further develop your project and see where your project can be improved.

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CASE STUDY:

AVAILABLE WASTE

PLANNING FOR SUCCESS

AVAILABLE RESOURCES

. . .

POSSIBLE PROJECTS

The Banner Bags Secondary Team identified that their school had a large amount of waste. This included unused fabric scraps, excess food being thrown out, and unused material in the wood shop. The resources they recognized were full access to the textiles supplies, the knowledge of their textiles teacher, janitorial staff support, and a club that holds environmental projects. Upon brainstorming ideas that tied these factors together, the students came up with a list of possible projects. They could: a) create a compost bin at their school, b) sew quilts with the excess fabric, or c) build a beautiful sculpture. Despite their available resources, the most feasible option would be to sew quilts out of unusable fabric and scraps from their textiles classroom. Reviewing the judging criteria, the team knew that their project was creative, upcycling a large amount of fabric that would normally go to waste and end up in the landfill. Their project was only lacking in one section: Human Impact. How could they ensure to score top marks for that criteria? Read the next section to find out what they did.

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SECTION 4

STRENGTHENING YOUR PROJECT

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EXPAND YOUR PROJECT. Now that your team has recognized its strengths and weaknesses in terms of the judging criteria, it is time to explore ways to enhance its current impact. Possible areas are: a) Incorporating other waste - Now that your project is on its way to success, take a look back at your original planning materials and see if there are leftover materials that you can now incorporate. b) Finding individuals in need - If you are having difficulties creating human impact with your project, consider speaking to various clubs in your school to see what initiatives they are currently working on. See if you can tie your project into theirs to broaden the scope of your impact!

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OBTAIN METRICS. An important aspect of measuring the impact of your project is to obtain and document relevant measures throughout the process. Some suggestions of what to measure are: a) Number of students involved b) Pounds of material diverted from landfill c) Number of hours put into the project d) Number of people affected by the project e) Cost of the project f) Amount of money raised through the project

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CONTACT YOUR GO GREEN CHALLENGE COORDINATOR. Your Go Green Challenge Education Coordinator is one of the Banner Bags presenters that came to your classroom. They are available to guide you with your project and can assist you with anything from registering your project to strengthening it. If you are unsure of who your school’s education coordinator is, send an email to [email protected].

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CASE STUDY:

COMBINING INITIATIVES

One day, a student from the Banner Bags Secondary team was speaking to her friend, Jenna, about the team’s project and its difficulty in fulfilling the Human Impact criteria. Jenna mentioned that her social justice club was planning a sweater drive for the underprivileged children in their city. The student from the Go Green Challenge team had just discovered a way for the project to impact people in the community by distributing their quilts at the sweater drive! She brought the idea back to her team and everyone was on board. The new purpose fueled the team with even more drive and initiative than they originally had. They were going to make a difference in other people’s lives while also being environmentally sustainable! Fabric scrap quilts were being made at an incredible rate and with the deadline quickly approaching, the team was just about ready to submit their final project.

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SECTION 5

SUBMITTING YOUR PROJECT

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SUBMISSION GUIDELINES. You can submit your project starting January 1st. The final deadline for all project submissions is March 1st, 2014 at 11:59pm. Submit an informational video of your project and a team photo to [email protected] with the subject Go Green Challenge - Name of School on your email. If your file size is too large to be sent through email, please use sendspace.com and send the link.

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INFORMATIONAL VIDEO GUIDELINES. In order for your project to be judged, you must submit a video describing your project and the impact it has made. Be creative! Use any pictures or videos that you have collected through the year and try to get everyone involved! The video must be less than 5 minutes long and include a full description of your project. A few tips: a) Be sure to mention how your project fulfills each section of the judging criteria. b) Include any metrics, such as the number of people you’ve impacted or the amount of waste reduced, in your documented project. c) If your school has a film and video class, ask if they can help out!

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CASE STUDY:

CREATING A VIDEO

With the final submission deadline only a few weeks away, the team decided that they would start putting together their informational video. They drafted a storyboard of what they would say and worked after school until it was complete. They also incorporated a video of the team sewing their quilts and distributing them at the sweater drive. Although they had a video camera, they did not have any skills to edit their video into the final presentation. Luckily, their school’s film class had a student who was eager to help out and offered his time to edit the video. The team then sent their Team Photo and Informational Video to Banner Bags, and began planning how they would effectively gain a high social media score.

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SECTION 6

ENHANCING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA SCORES Starting February 1st, all submission videos will be posted on our Banner Bags Facebook Page. The voting period will be from February 1st, 2014 to March 10th, 2014 at 11:59pm. A portion of your overall score will be how effectively you promote your project through social media! The three social media platforms that can earn you points are Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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SOCIAL MEDIA SCORING GUIDELINES Below is a description of how to acquire points for your project: a) Facebook Each ‘like’ on your video on our Banner Bags Facebook page will be equal to one vote. In order to be eligible to vote, you must also ‘like’ our Facebook page. Judging Criteria Scale: Excellent (4pts) = 500+ votes Very Good (3pts) = 250-499 votes Good (2pts) = 50-249 votes Improvement Needed (1pt) =