Kingsway Academy's lower primary school students and teachers have taken on the challenge to minimize the impact they have on the environment through proper waste management by being more mindful of how they generate garbage and where it goes, and as a result, the school was recently awarded the distinction of being the pilot school for the Innovative Science "Where does the garbage go?" project.
The program challenges the school children and teachers to evaluate the amount of waste they generate, and determine its fate. The goal is for them to reduce the amount of home and classroom waste going into the landfill. Students will explore what happens when garbage leaves their classroom and their homes. The journey began in their morning chapel assembly. The children of the lower primary section of the school (grades K3-3) listened to Christine Hepburn as she portrayed "Grammy Hepburn" from Cat Island as she read the story, "Where does the garbage go?" from the National Literacy Services.
"We are aiming to change the attitudes of students, teachers and parents towards waste management in The Bahamas. We hope to sensitize the next generation to the dangers of taking garbage disposal for granted," said Sheena Davis, president of Innovative Science.
Kingsway Academy Senior Mistress Ingrid Kerkulah said she welcomed Innovative Science sharing with her students and teachers exactly how they could minimize the volume of garbage being generated.
"We realize that garbage does not simply disappear once it leaves our campus or even our homes," she said. "As a school, we are happy to partner with Innovative Science and the [United States] Embassy [who provided a grant to fund the project] with this new initiative. We want to do our part by taking care of this beautiful land that God has given to us by continuing to reduce, reuse and recycle."
The project that got underway in October will take place in two phases and will run until June 2015. The first phase of the project involves students and teachers determining the amount of garbage being discarded in their classrooms. Students will record and weigh the garbage daily. The second phase will involve students learning which items are recyclable in The Bahamas and which items are not. Each classroom will be outfitted with its own recycle center for paper, plastic and aluminium cans.
"When the recyclable items are removed from the waste stream, students and teachers will see a reduction in the volume and weight of garbage being discarded," said Davis.
Funding for the project was provided by a grant from the US Embassy, along with sponsorship from Caribbean Bottling, Bahamas Waste and Waste Not.
Paul Stilley, acting public affairs officer at the US Embassy Nassau said they were pleased to partner with Innovative Science to raise awareness about conservation and protecting the environment in The Bahamas.
"We need to elevate the environment in everything we do, so supporting youth-focused conservation programs is very important to us. We applaud the efforts undertaken by students at Kingsway Academy Primary School to minimize the impact they have on the environment through proper waste management. By being more mindful of how we generate garbage and where it goes, we bring about a change of attitude that moves us one step closer to ensuring the environmental protection of this beautiful Bahamian archipelago," said Stilley.
Innovative Science is a company committed to providing hands on science education for students. This is accomplished through after school programs, in-class workshops, summer camps and science-themed parties and shows. The project is a part of its community outreach program.

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