Middle Schoolers Took On Climate Change This Year In Pacifica: Here's What They Actually Did

PACIFICA, CA — A sixth grade class at Ingrid B. Lacy Middle School in Pacifica wrapped up the school year by doing more than just studying climate change — they did something about it.

Teacher Gwendolyn Holden challenged her students to take real action by choosing from seven activities designed to reduce their carbon footprint, from going meat-free for a week to tracking household electricity usage to speaking at a city council meeting. The results ranged from eye-opening to surprisingly fun — and in at least one case, ended with a cake.

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One of Ms. Holden's student's, Matteo Moraga Lee, documented the experience in their own words:

"At Ingrid B. Lacy Middle school Ms. Holden’s 6th grade class wrapped up the year with a Climate Change Capstone Project. We learned that climate change is impacting the world a lot so Ms. Holden encouraged us to do something about it. We had a choice of seven different activities that we could do to lower our carbon footprint.

Here are some interviews of my classmates who took action:

Jenna and Jeri, twin sisters, made a presentation to the Pacifica City Council. Jenna and Jeri said they were nervous at first but then realized it wasn’t such a big deal when they saw how welcoming the city council was. Jenna wrote the script and Jeri did the poster. The Mayor thanked Jenna and Jeri and told them that climate change was something that she was concerned about as well. Their dad was very proud of them and their mom made them cake.

Milo, another classmate of mine, took the bus for a week for his climate change capstone project. For Milo, taking the bus was easy for him. It was a good way to wake him up. Milo likes talking to his friends, and taking the bus was a good way to talk to them. It was also easy for Milo’s parents to let him take the bus, since they also have to drop off his siblings. Milo liked taking the bus, but when Friday came he didn’t miss taking it. Milo is not sure if he wants to take the bus again. And luckily for Milo, he thinks he saved a bit of gasoline.

Arya chose to lower her carbon footprint by not eating meat for a week. For Arya, eating meatless was a bit hard, since her family ate meat in front of her. When Arya first told her family about the project they didn’t believe her. For Arya, Tuesday was the hardest day of not eating meat, and she was glad to stop when Friday came. But she does think she made an impact on the world’s climate because we learned that eating meat has a large carbon footprint. She is also hoping that her work will pay off because she thinks she will get an A on the project.

Jordan tracked his electricity usage for his climate change capstone project. He did this by working with his parents to view their PG&E account. Tracking his energy usage wasn't hard to do and it was almost a little bit fun for Jordan. Gathering the information took about a week. He found out that he used a lot more electricity in January because he had lots of drying appliances plugged in because of a water leak that occurred in his house. When he went on vacation his electricity usage went down, but not all the way down this was because he had unnecessary appliances plugged in. In fact around 40 percent of his electricity usage comes from appliances that are always on. Jordan realized that he could reduce his electricity usage simply by unplugging unnecessary devices.

Other options students had: reducing plastics in their pantry, analyzing if purchasing an electric car makes sense for their family and lastly, calling an elected official about a climate change bill currently being considered.

Now that we know so much about the things we can do for climate change there are so many ways we can help, lots of them take little effort. I’m very proud of being part of something that can help the world. I hope my other classmates also know that they are part of a project to help lower the world's temperature.

To conclude, I feel our school, I.B.L, is making a positive change to the climate through this project. My classmates tried to help the world's climate in many ways. I’m very proud that I got to be part of something that helped change the world. I hope more people will try to make a change in the world's climate. Even if it seems small, if a lot of people tried to make a positive change the world climate would improve."