Education and Public Awareness: Elementary Level

An elementary school workshop taught first graders about recycling and how to make birdhouses from recycled materials, which helps the environment.

Goal: Teach students about recycling and the benefits of reusing recycled materials
Activity:Students created birdhouses made from post-consumer carton packages

Our first initiative: we hosted a workshop at an elementary school in California. In April 2023, we contacted a first grade teacher. The goal was to teach students about the importance of recycling and how reusing recycled materials to make birdhouses can provide a place for birds to live, and save the environment.

We provided the teacher with a prototype birdhouse from our phase 1 proposal. The class was also following their school's unit curriculum of “Different Animals and their Habitats”. Students were very excited about birdhouses as it related to their school topic of habitats. They decorated this birdhouse and were interested in learning about birds and the environment. They also submitted this prototype for their school recycling contest and earned an “Honorable Mention”.

In late May, we arrived at the school and presented to two first-grade classes. During the presentation, teachers from other classrooms stayed and listened to the talk. Afterward, we led a hands-on activity of designing and helping students build their own prototype birdhouse. Students made their own birdhouse more attractive by coloring and adding drawings before hanging them on school grounds for observation.

For the Building part, we chose to use milk cartons for educational purposes, which we collected along with students and teachers. Students then painted and cut out a hole in the middle for the entrance. We also attached strings and wrapped them around the birdhouse to be placed on trees. The roof was made from popsicle sticks glued on top.

Here, students are hanging up the birdhouses and observing their results.

After building, students received an anonymous survey with 5 questions to gauge how much they understood the presentation and their thoughts on the project and activity.