Go Green Pictures: Sweat Equity

Sweat Equity is an arts design course.  It is part of the UA Institute summer program.  One of their projects was to create a logo for the Green Team.  Today they ran a focus group on the logos they came up with.

Tawanna presenting her logos

Samarriah presenting her logos and getting feedback from Illyia.

Imoni thought that this logo would be great on a gray shirt.  

Tawanna writing down everyone's comments.

Go Green Pictures: Courtyard Work

Yesterday

Yesterday the Green Team started building our flower beds. We also figured out the measurements needed for the flower bed. We cut up the wood needed and put then together although we did not nail them together. We put them like that so that we would have an idea of how the flower beds should be at the end. We did that for 20 minutes and we had to switch with  the other group that was in our computer lab. Then when the last group came up stairs we did what the group did before us. We had to research different topics that we will have to present.

BY:MOSI HINDS

Building time

Today we started building out our flower pots to gather our plants into. We learned how to create the flower pots by using mathematics for building the beds. We also did research on urban farming in cities, towns &  villages. we learned that making this bed will help us finish our garden to be an beautiful outdoor spaces that are economy friendly.  We also learned that building is hard work and our math had to be correct or else our flower beds might be inefficient. So, wish us luck!

        by: Maya S & Oneesha D 

Go Green Pictures: Research Project and Construction

Today the girls started their research projects and building the flower beds.  For the research project the girls were in teams of two.  Their projects were on either green roofs or urban farming. 

In the basement, the girls worked with two carpenters.  They had to look over the flower bed plans and calculate how much wood was needed to cut.  

Go Green Pictures: Majora Carter

Majora Carter Part I

Monday we learned about a lady named Majora Carter.  She has a wonderful husband.  She is from the south Bronx in New York.  In the 1940's her parents were part of the migration from the South into the Bronx.  She talked about the white flight and Robert Moses.  Robert Moses made highways and destroyed communities.  

One day she took a run with her dog.  Her dog dragged her to what she thought was a dump.  Behind the dump was a river.  She then started to organize her community and changed the dump to a 3 million dollar park.

More to come....

By Rema Bryce

Habana Outpost

Yesterday we took a very exciting  trip to a cafe called "The Habana Outpost". Its a cafe/restaurant. We had a tour of the cafe. They reuse a lot of  there materials to help out environment.  They use solar panels to power their kitchen and the inside of the cafe.  The outdoor tables are made out of a material called Trex.  Trex is recycled plastic and wood.  Even the cups and utensils are green.  They are made of corn and potato starch, which is biodegradable.  

By Mosi

Ready Get Set Compost!! Go Worms!!!

What is Compost? Compost is organic matter decompose into rich dark-brown crumbly soil material. To get compost we need a team of workers that consist of dead leaves, small twigs, grass clippings, vegetables, fruits, bacteria, fungi, pill bugs, worms and so much more! As of now the Go Green Team are putting the finishing touches on the painting for our wonderful court yard. Our next step will be is to create benches and flower pots and our very own composting bin! 

By Kayonda

Today we were finishing the courtyard. we just brought in some wood for the benches. As a group we started to paint the courtyard. We tried to finish the courtyard but we ran out of paint. But mean while we are going to the farmers market. Also the plants that we planted last week grew a lot. But the sage grew for the first time.

By: Tamara

Today we went over to the courtyard and we continued working on our Pythagorean theorem & compass rose paintings. But we didn't have enough paint so we had to cover it up for the rain so it wouldn't get messed up. Later on we will be going over to the farmer's market to see the amount of the things that we planted.

Elizabeth Adesanya

GO GREEN PICTURES

The sight of green makes us happy.

Our lettuce is growing!

Imoni Logan measuring before her group paints.

Go Green painting the courtyard.

Who says math is useless? Our girls using their scaling skills to convert the diagram measurements into the proper dimensions for our courtyard.

Go Green student making a cutout for the triangles on a rainy day.

Stencils And Measuring Right Triangles

Today is July 21 and were creating stencils for the court yard to trace and paint. We also did a quiz about what we learned in the climate change from the Museum of Natural History. We're learning how real experts scale drawings to real life places.  As we create stencils we are also measuring triangles.  The type of triangles that we measure are right triangles.  The base of the triangle is eight and height of the triangle is six, so the longest side of the triangle is ten, which is also known as the hypotenuse. I used Pythagorean Theorum (a² +b²=c² ) so  (8² +6² =10²) 8 squared is 64 and 6 squared is 36 so when you add them both together you will get 100 and the square root of 100 is 10. So thats how I got a 6 - 8 - 10 triangle.

by:Tamara & iyliyya & REMA  BRYCE

blue today... green tomorrow!!!

  Today, we were introduced to our 2nd guess speaker named Zack from "Green Guerillas."  Zack briefly discussed his job promoting gardens around the Brooklyn community.  

We also discussed the many reasons people grow gardens in their community and backyards. The last thing we've talked about was how much crops cost for organic and non-organic produce, and also we started our painting process in our school garden.    

-by: Tonlyna McNair & Oneesha Dixon

Check out the Green Guerilla's at: 

http://www.greenguerillas.org/GG_ourpeople.php

                        Have a green day:)

Climate Change at Museum of Natural History

On Thursday, we took a field trip to the Museum of Natural History to see the Climate Change Exhibit.  When we first walked in the we saw a long line representing the rate of change of CO2 emission going from the 1900's to now.  In the 1950's there was a big jump in the rate of change.   We saw a a large screen showing us not to waste time driving cars and to plant more trees. We also learned that when the ice is melting in Greenland and Antarctica how it effects the sea level. We learned that floating ice shelves act as dams to glaciers. We learned that weather is really what we get everyday like rain and sun shine and that climate is the recorded temperature over a long period of time. 

by:  Mosi Hinds & Kayonda Marshall & Surquonna Soleyn

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/climatechange/

Go Green's First Field Trip

On Thursday, July 16, Go Green visited the Climate Change exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. Our girls went through the exhibit answering questions, provided by the museum, about climate change and sustainability. Ms. Kelly O and I were proud of their behavior. A number of museum goers came up to us amazed at how engaged our students were. This is the first of four trips that our girls will take this summer.

Our Girls Going Green!

Our girls are planting organic seeds in biodegradable pots.  These plants will be put in the courtyard's flower beds when the school year begins.

The White House Lawn in Downtown Brooklyn

Okay, maybe we're not quite there yet, but I think a letter to the First Lady could be a cool project. What advice does she have for our initiative? Can she help get us more sun in the courtyard?

There's been a popular movement, led by Roger Doiron of Eat the View, to promote that kind of healthy local eating. Why now? Because the local food movement -- which has always prized tasty fresh and healthy locally grown fruits and vegetables -- is being bolstered by the recession. More and more Americans are planning gardens to save money.

Michelle Obama's garden will quickly become the most high-profile garden in the country, offering an unparalleled opportunity for education about the benefits and pleasures of growing your own food.

The garden decision follows Michelle Obama's positive statements about community gardening to USDA staff in late February, when she praised Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack's People's Garden Project. Here's what she had to say about his plan to develop community gardens at USDA facilities in order to demonstrate sustainable gardening techniques:

"I was ... particularly pleased to hear that (Vilsack) is working on creating these wonderful gardens here at the USDA. ... and kicking off this effort to build these gardens all over the world in all of the facilities of the USDA, because I'm a big believer in community gardens, both because of their beauty and for their access to providing fresh fruits and vegetables to so many communities across this nation and the world."

Read more: http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/michelle-obama-gardens-47022002#ixzz0LT8mK3Oi

http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/michelle-obama-gardens-47022002

blue today.... green tomorrow

Today was a very active day. We had a guest speaker named Ms. Ellen she came and briefly showed us the blueprints of our new green courtyard and talk to us about energy efficient buildings. Then we did an activity that helps us to learn more about Carbon Dioxide and Fossil fuels and we also did a personal activity that we were asked the question (if you had all the money, time and support from other people in the world, what would you propose we do about the world's dependence on fossil fuels?) 

BY: Tonlyna & Quaisan 

blue today... green tomorrow!

Today we have been able to start our new planting process, as well as quiz our knowledge of how our daily activities effect our community, and what we can do to improve.  Tomorrow our plans are that we will paint the courtyard, to create a beautiful scenery for the plants to reside in, as well as to reflect healthy sunlight for our plants to grow.

 

We also watched a very informative film called "inconvenient truth", which was kind of bland.   It was with al gore explaining the increase rate of gasoline use from the 1900's to now and about global warming.

NYT Article

Street Farmer- check out this article from the new york times.

Updated Courtyard Plans

These are the updated plans for our courtyard.  Notice how Ellen Honigstock took our school's theme and 

incorporated it into the walkway!

Summer Construction Project 2

The girls will also be building benches for our outdoor classroom/theater.