Ecology Club 

Ecology Club usually meets after school (from 3pm to 4pm) twice a month (every other Thursday). Occasionally, the meeting day may change but members will be notified in advance. We'll use our Google Classroom as our primary means of communication. Our goals are to make positive changes here at Haviland and to inform our peers at Haviland Middle School about the changes we can ALL make to positively impact our planet.


2024-2025 Ecology Club officers:



Some Potential Activities/Field Trips:

Here are some of the trips and activities we've done in the past. When we meet together, we can discuss what we'd like to add to this list:

Making our own cleaning products

Making our own lip balm

Planting seeds

Earth Day Celebration

Field Trip to the O-Zone in Red Hook

Field trip to Wolf Conservation Center

Field Trip to Omega Center for Sustainable Living

Some of our Recent Accomplishments:


Outdoor Clean-up - 

During several of our meetings, we spend some time walking around the school grounds picking up trash. We hope to quantify our results (how much trash we pick up each time) and report our efforts to the school community. We will be asking everyone to pitch-in in order to keep our grounds clean.

Working with our District's Energy Specialist - 

During the 2021-2022 school year, we were able to meet with Mr. Foster, our district's energy specialist. He taught us all about the district's energy usage and what can be done to reduce it. This year, we are looking forward to continuing our work with Mr. Foster. We'll be getting a tour of our building's inner workings and conducting an energy audit!

Pollinator Pathway and Garden - 

 During the 2020-2021 school year, although we had virtual meetings all year long, we made great strides in getting our pollinator garden up and running. We met (virtually) with educators and students from Vassar College, as well as middle and high school students and teachers from Spackenkill and Wappingers. We are in the process of getting on the map for the Pollinator Pathway Project as well as getting our own garden underway.

Reducing paper menus -

Starting in the spring of 2019, the club calculated the amount of paper used to print paper menus for all the school buildings and estimated the cost of that paper. In an effort to reduce the waste generated by printing so many menus and to reduce the amount of money spent, club members worked with students, teachers, and administrators. We surveyed people about how useful/necessary the paper copies are, we promoted the use of the online interactive menus, and we made proposals to stop printing more than enough copies for all students. Instead, each month some copies will be available in the main office for whoever would like to take one home.  Here's the link to the food service tab of our district site. From there, you can click on the menus.

Recycling Ambassador Program - 

During the 2018-2019 school year, the Ecology Club started a new program called the Recycling Ambassador Program! This program helps with the problem of people forgetting to take out some of the recycling. In this program, two people for each homeroom or study hall are to be chosen to take out the recycling every Wednesday when the bins are in the hallway. If you want to be a recycling ambassador, tell your teacher. If you have any questions, ask Mrs. Peni at A-18. Or you can e-mail Mrs. Peni at Breannepeni@hpcsd.org.