Events and Displays

2018, 2019 Earth Day at Davis High School

In 2018, the RISE Student Board invited Jennifer Gilbert and Dawn Calciano from the City of Davis Public Works Department to run a table during Davis High School's lunch period with brochures as well as tablets for students to try the Zero Waste sorting game. RISE members handed out T-shirts and introduced the new DHS CRV collection program.

Given the success of the 2018 Earth Day event, the RISE Student Board expanded the 2019 celebration to include recycling trivia and a prize wheel. The RSB collaborated with DHS's Environmental club to present succulent plants and tomato plants (generously donated by a community member) as prizes. Jennifer Gilbert and Dawn Calciano returned and ran a table with educational water-conservation games and informational brochures.

For future events, the Board planned to collaborate with DHS clubs such as the World Wildlife Fund and the Environmental Club to host an even bigger Earth Day event on the quad. The goal is to make connections to other student groups and to increase the visibility of the recycling program on campus.

DSIS Earth Day Event

In 2016, RISE Student Board members attended a student Earth Day event at the Davis School for Independent Study. They had a table display to explain school recycling processes. Teachers, students, and parents asked questions about the school recycling program and Board activities. Interested students were encouraged to join the RISE Student Board.

Four students gathered around the RSB Earth Day booth outside the Davis High School North Gym.

A "recycling spin prize wheel" with 12 differently colored wedges with pictures of trash items.

A student observing the RSB banner while visiting the Earth Day booth.

Eleven miniature succulents in pots to be given as prizes; three large ones and eight small ones.

A line of approximately 25 students waiting to access the RSB Earth Day booth.

Posters

RSB members created posters with recycling statistics and put them up around the DHS campus during Earth Week in 2018 and 2019.

Poster captions:

Did you know? The average car emits about 5 tons of CO2 each year. You CAN make a difference.
Don't be trashy.
A plastic water bottle takes over 450 years to decompose. Just RECYCLE.
1 million sea creatures die every year as a result of plastic pollution in the ocean.
Each year, enough plastic bottles are thrown away to cycle the Earth four times. Please recycle plastic bottles (and other recyclables!)
A single person creates four pounds of waste every day. That's almost 1,500 lbs per year. One person CAN make a difference. YOU can choose to recycle.
Skip the trash can! About 75% of our waste stream can be recycled. Be the change!
Over 1 million sea birds and 100,000 sea mammals are killed by pollution every year. REDUCE your plastic use.

Lunch Lectures

The RISE Student Board also collaborated with other student organizations like Women in STEM and Environmental Club to host guest speakers at lunch during Earth Week.

Dr. Susan Handy at the front of the classroom speaking to students sitting at desks.

Dr. Susan Handy, professor of Environmental Science and Policy at UC Davis, giving a talk about her research on bicycling in Davis and its impact on automobile use.

Poster announcing the Oiled Wildlife Care Network guest lecture.

Scott Buhl, Wildlife Response Specialist at the UC Davis Oiled Wildlife Care Network, gave an overview of the organization and explained the oil spill deployment process used to rescue oiled wildlife.

Parking Lot Clean-Up

The RISE Student Board hosted a cleanup of the Veterans' Memorial parking lot ahead of Earth Day to promote campus beautification. They recruited volunteers from the DHS California Scholarship Federation to help. The following week, the bags of trash were displayed on the quad with a sign reminding students to keep their campus clean.

Two students writing "Happy Earth Day 2019" in chalk outside the Davis High School Brunelle Theater.

Four trash bags and two blue CRV bins displayed on the DHS quad with two posters: "All this trash was picked up in the parking lot. Take pride in our campus. Keep it beautiful!" and "...in other words, that's nasty! Pick up your trash!"

Smashed trash on the ground in the DHS parking lot.

A student picking up trash with a grabber.

RISE Student Board members posing with their filled trash bags and trash grabbers after cleaning up the DHS parking lot.

Two students picking up trash; one holding a grabber and the other holding a bag.

iSORT Display

This display was designed to supplement the Educational Recycling Video that the RISE Student Board created and distributed to secondary schools in 2016. The display was available to any school that showed the video at the beginning of the school year.

Plywood iSort sign and recycling station display. The front panel of each of the four recycling containers in the display, trash, organics, commingle, and paper has been removed to reveal its contents.

Rear-facing view of the four-container recycling station display. The plywood sign reads, “Let's Sort it Out and Talk Trash”.

Close-up of the four-container recycling station. The front panel of each container has been removed to reveal its contents.

Junior High School Activities

Bike To School Month Displays

In 2015, junior high Green Team members advertised Bike To School Month with figures that encouraged environmental stewardship.

A human-sized female packaging tape figure is sitting on a bicycle decorated in a Mother Earth theme.

A human-sized male figure created from plastic Gatorade and soda bottles is sitting on a bicycle decorated in a recycling theme.

A human-sized packaging tape recycling hero figure is sitting on a bicycle with a front basket full of recyclable waste.

Halloween costumes with a recycling message.

Large red organics container placed next to a grey wheelbarrow filled with compost and plastic waste typically found in school lunches.

A wheelbarrow full of compost from the local composting facility. The display message emphasized that small pieces of plastic, glass, and other contamination that is haphazardly placed in organics containers can remain in the compost after processing. Do you want that in your garden?

Small branch mounted on a three-tiered wooden block and decorated with small trinkets.

Recycling hero reward was given to teachers who promoted recycling in their classroom.

Chalkboard Recycling Messages

RISE members wrote eco-friendly messages on outdoor campus chalkboards to encourage junior high school students to be conscious of relevant environmental issues and to remind them that sorting their lunch waste was one way they could make a difference in reducing the amount of waste headed for their local landfill.

Two figures between a trash can and a recycling container. The message reads: “You got this.” “I know you can do it!” “Please sort it out.” “Trash is last.”

Chalkboard message reads: "What you don't need, Refuse." "Do you need it? Reduce." "What you do have, Reuse." "Recycle." "Rethink your Choices."

One-Day of Trash at Holmes Junior High

Trash, commingle, and organics containers were emptied first thing in the morning and then collected at the end of the school day. Prior to sorting out contamination from each cart, there were two full trash cans, a 1/4 full commingle cart, and a 3/4 full organics cart. After sorting, trash was reduced by half, commingle increased slightly, and organics increased by 3/4 cart.