They’re the Garbage Patch kids, Generation 2.0.
Reynolds secondary Grade 10 students Jordyn Youson, Sam Kenyon and Emma Davis have turned the problem of plastics in our oceans into a successful school project in Reynolds’ Flexible Studies program.
“We took our project name from the [Great Pacific Garbage Patch] in a Pacific Ocean gyre,” said Youson. “But it’s not just one patch, we’re learning plastics are everywhere.”
Project based learning is one of the most defining features of Reynolds’ Flex program, which has been around since the late 1980s. On Tuesday, April 25, the Flex program is hosting an open house to celebrate its honourable mention and $1,000 prize from the Ken Spencer Award, presented annually by the Canadian Education Association. Flex was one of five honourable mentions from 102 applicants.
“Really, Flex is in about its fourth iteration, we’re always trying to find ways to better connect students to learning,” said Flex teacher Brad Cunningham, who is excited about the Spencer Award.
It means a lot, Cunningham added, that the work of Flex students and the community they engage with was nationally recognized by the Canadian Education Association.
Students actually drive the shape of Flex by being part of the decision process, though the program’s not ideal for all students. For starters, there has to be a level of self motivation, as students dictate, for the most part, the structure of their afternoons, which are spent in a wing of Reynolds partly dedicated to Flexible Studies.
“I came to Reynolds for Flex and the soccer [academy] and on June 20 last year I was all but done with Flex, I was definitely going to go back into regular schedule for Grade 10,” Youson said. “But I had a few conversations and I came back here instead of the soccer [academy], and now I love it.”
Youson and the Garbage Patch group is building on their 2015-16 oceans project, which was one of 12 projects in the Flex program’s Youth Echoing Truth exhibit at the Royal B.C. Museum. The trio have tailored a presentation to middle school students that introduces a fourth ‘R,’ refuse, into the reduce-reuse-recycle triangle.
“We are targeting Grade 6 and 7 students because we remember being that age and we didn’t have anyone telling us how important it is to use less plastic,” Youson said.
To date, the Garbage Patch group has presented to about 1,500 students in Glanford, Cedar Hill, Central and Monterey middle schools, as well as Selkirk Montessori. On Fridaythey were at Willows Beach assisting Monterey students with an Earth Day beach clean up while also offering educational support to curious younger students.
The Ken Spencer Award-winning programs recognized for how local professionals, parents, teachers, students and their newcomer peers can work together to leverage real and relevant learning opportunities in their own backyards.