Listen Up, Green People. It's Toomey Time.

Before winter break, MSEL completed our long-awaited Project Week. During Project Week we split into five groups of five people, each group completing a different task relating to the use (and abuse) of bottled water. There was Student Body Campaign, Teacher and Administration Cohort, Research and Marketing Cohort, Cafeteria and Athletics Cohort and finally the Documentary Cohort (see links!). Each group strove to put the word out that the use of bottled water has a negative impact on our society. We tried our best to convince others that drinking water from a plastic water bottle is unhealthy to the human body as well as the environment. Project Week was stressful, but also fun. The week gave us the chance to get our voices out there and negotiate with students as well as adults, building skills we’ll definitely use in the adult world.

The week started out extremely disorganized. It seemed as if we had a lot of time, but time flew by and suddenly we were at the point where time was up and projects were due. At points, the groups were going in different directions and they didn't seem to be working as a team. I felt a bit of "negative energy". There were disagreements and it was difficult to complete tasks. If we worked more efficiently as a team, I think it would have gone more smoothly. On the up side of things, we were able to show our different talents and creativity to volunteers and our teachers, as well as our peers. Though there wasn’t much homework during project week, the documentary group worked all throughout break to complete their amazing film. It was fun to have the freedom to walk around and do creative activities. As a result of our energy and hard work, we were able to communicate with health classes, present to the administration, do water taste tests around the school, bring filtered water to basketball games (something we’re still working on—thanks Cathy Licht!)), get a slew of teachers on board with us, and generally begin to increase consciousness about bottle abuse around the school. With Project Week behind us, we now have started the New Year with the study of energy and the effort to present to our parents what project week was all about.

Energy is now the theme in all of our MSEL classes. Starting with Biology, we watched Earth: A User’s Manual, a film about different types of energy and the positive effects of diverse energies in our society. Some of the types of energy sources we've looked at are solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear. They all have different impacts on the environment, positive and detrimental. The most popular energy efficient sources are wind and solar. Wind doesn't cause pollutants and isn't costly, but it kills birds and disrupts the beauty of the land. Plus, locations of the instruments for wind are limited. Solar is good as it doesn't make noise and there are no moving parts. You can actually get partially reimbursed from PG.&E for the cost of the panel over time. There are tax incentives when upgrading to solar energy. However, solar doesn't work at night and takes up a lot of roof space to use properly. The most commonly used energy source around the world is nuclear energy. Although nuclear energy may be popular it creates radioactive waste (not to mention tension between nations). We also learned about types of energy in World Geography.

The different types of energy sources that we learned about in Geography are solar, wind, geothermal, hydro-electric, nuclear, oil, natural gas, agricultural bio-mass, tidal and coal. Half of these listed are renewable. The renewable energy sources are tidal, solar, wind, geothermal and hydro-electricity. The remaining sources are non-renewable, meaning that you have to get more and more every time you use it. We are warned as a society that oil and natural gas can contribute to global warming and are not cost-effective. It seems that if the world was more knowledgeable about the other types of energy they may be more apt to try them. Mr. Madsen split us into groups to each make a poster giving information about each source of energy. We've had the last week to complete this goal and to take notes on the final projects and score each one. We also learned how to make professional looking posters that represent us with polish—increasing our ethos, if you will!

In Language Arts we have been learning about the spiritual, emotional and linguistic side of energy. For one assignment we had to find advertisements that said one thing but really meant another. For example, if a vacuum cleaner store said "Our vacuum cleaners suck!” the first thought that comes to mind is the vacuum cleaner is not good, when what they are actually trying to say is that they suck up dirt. Another assignment was finding words that mean the same thing but have a different emotional energy toward them. One good example from class was Sophie's example of "quiz vs. test": a “quiz” doesn't sound half as bad as a “test.” But they are actually the exact same thing! The way that language is used can be essential to our goal at MSEL, as we need to be able to inform others of what we've learned. To try to make changes in our society can be difficult, but to be persuasive and learn how to market to others through speech is incredibly important.

To close my blog, I offer you a sample of my poetry:

Project Week was full of excitement, and full of stress,
full of worry, we did our best,
This place we call MarinSEL, has given us a chance to ring the thinking bell,
Creativity and hard work,
mind-blowing teamwork,
Put together to succeed, this weeklong project... we succeeded indeed!
Volunteers wanted to help out; they tried and tried but had no doubts,
A week went by, we wanted to be done,
but what we didn’t know?
The real stressing had just begun!
From presenting to classes, parents, teachers too, we couldn’t help but to
Put on a show....
MarinSEL is only brand new,
And we want to tell the story to you.
Don’t worry, don’t hide in the shade,
Joining MarinSEL was the best choice I’ve made.