The Fall 2019 semester at a glance!

The 2019 fall semester was the busiest yet for us at The Gaia Project! I know, we said the same thing last year, but it is true again! Thanks to the growing support of educators across New Brunswick, our generous funders and the ever increasing engagement of youth, we have been able to continue to grow and reach more New Brunswick students than ever before.

This year youth across N.B. were not only fighting for climate action but also climate change education. Students across the province were participating in the international Friday’s For Future campaign spearheaded by youth climate activist Greta Thunberg. 

This semester in numbers:

Students reached: 8,065

Programs delivered: 338

Schools reached: 78

Outreach events: 2 

Teacher professional learning: 130 teachers

New Program Launch and Success!

This year we were able to launch a new program, Energy Engineers, aimed at students in grades 3-5. This program introduced students at an early age to concepts such as renewable energy, energy demand and electric vehicles all while working on other skills such as collaboration, communication and inquiry based learning. 

One of my grade 4 students, who is usually unmotivated, said “This is the best presentation ever!!

Participating teacher reflecting on the Energy Engineers Program

Success stories!

Sustainability in Action is a high school program which allows students to answer their own sustainability questions about their school. This is our most hands on, results driven program. This semester we ran 25 of these programs, reaching over 500 students. Here are some of the highlights from the 2019 Sustainability in Action projects:

• A high school student that has never presented in front of their class for years due to anxiety lead a group presentation because they were so passionate about the topic
• Students presented their schools energy consumption and reduction plan to their principal/district leads
• A Moncton student presented their plan to mayor Dawn Arnold to help homeless individuals by rallying downtown restaurants together to donate leftover food at the end of the day 
• Hampton students led an awareness campaign to demonstrate that paper plates from the cafeteria can be composted, reducing the amount of paper plates in the garbage thus far by over 50% (and they are just getting started!)

I liked that the whole purpose of the project was to better our school and environment; it wasn’t just a project for a mark, it had a real purpose and something that can really be put into action

Grade 12 World Issues student from Saint John High

To all teachers and students that requested our programs this semester, we would like to say a huge thank you. To our generous funders, thank you for your on-going commitment to climate change education in New Brunswick. Here’s to another amazing semester, we hope to work with you again soon!