Global Enrichment

2023 Global Summit

Theme: Clean Energy & Sustainable Cities

I had a great time at this years global summit! We did a fun icebreaker in the beginning, which was musical chairs. After that, everyone went around in groups to do different workshops. Then we had lunch and a Keynote Speaker came in talk to us about Andover Sustainability. Finally, we did a design challenge and presented our ideas to everyone else at the summit.

Workshop Sessions

Scavenger Hunt
Windmill Making
Button Making
How Sustainable Are You?
T-Shirt Station

I had a lot of fun at each of these stations, but my favorite was definitely the windmill making. I also love the t-shirt I made (I still wear it). The scavenger hunt was a little tricky, but at the end, we rewarded ourselves with starbucks.

Design Challenge

At the end of the summit, we did a project in our table groups where we observed climate inpacts in Andover, MA. These impacts include increased temperature and increases precipitation. Our town, in the next ten years, is expected to be subject to more intense heat waves, rainstorms, flooding, and cyclones. As a result, climate adaptations goal have been created in Andover:

Reduce Vulnerability to flooding and intense storms by increasing the capacity for flood storage and mitigation through nature based restoration and active management.
Strengthen Connectivity & Accessibility of open space and preserve land by expansing and creating linkage to existing trails, recreation opportunities, and conservation areas.
Educate the Local Community by creating demonstration areas that highlight the value of acquiring open space, protecting the local watershed, and adapting to a changing climate.

Challenge: How might Andover prepare for the impacts of climate change, specifically increased precipitation and temperature? Design a plan that addresses one or more of the.

Our Solution: Our group came up with establishing a rooftop garden on top of our high school, AHS. We currently have a small garden at the center of our school, but we would like to expand it to the roof and use the vegetables and fruits that we grow as part of the lunch the school serves. This would reduce the amount of energy our school uses for cooking, help reduce water runoff and rooftop temperature, and would also provide shade for the school.

Spring Cleanup

In March of 2023, my friend and I started working on the AHS sustainable garden. Although we couldn't plant anything yet, we started off by placing rocks around the foundation of where everything would be planted. This helps keep keep the mulch and wood chips from falling of the sides after it is placed over the soil. It took us about two hours to place rocks around the small dirt island and by the end if it, I thought my hands were going to freeze off. However, it was worth it to see the almost finished outcome and we even got hot chocolate.

Scarecrow Building

In November of 2023, our schools Global Pathways club took part in making a scarecrow. This is a tradition that happens every year, and the theme changes as well. This years theme was future careers. We decided on making the scarecrow into an explorer, for we believed this reflected our club and our love for researching and traveling to new places. We mainly worked on the project during our free period at school. I was in charge of creating the cargo vest with the materials we had. I used a felt cloth to make the actual vest, then used hot glue to create the buttons. In order to give it some color, I painted over the glue with yellow paint. Overall, this scarecrow was a lot of fun to make and the final product really reflected all of out effort.

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