Last Bog!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy last day of SCORE! I am so happy it is over and I am so ready to graduate. For the first part of my day, I went around the school and collected compost. Like I said before, it is my least favorite part of Green Team but it has to be done and I thought of it as sort of a parting gift. After I went around and collected the disgusting and leaky compost, I went back to the Green Team room and organized papers. There was a big box of papers and I put them into three different piles. I put all the papers that have been printed on both sides in the first pile. Those papers cannot be further used so they go straight to the recycling bin. The second pile had paper that had stuff printed on just one side. That pile is then stacked into a tight pile and put in the library to be used as printer paper. The last pile was for papers that were crumbled, ripped, or had staples.  That paper can be used as scratch paper so I put it in a pile for Mr. Magers that he ends up using for his classes. I know this is really interesting stuff. After I organized the papers, I worked on my works cited page. For some reason my works cited page is always so difficult for me but the OWL Purdue website made it so much easier to understand. After I worked on my works cited page I organized the Green  Team room a little bit but then realized there was no use because there are constantly like 10 boys in there so it was not even worth it.

Wednesday

Today in the Green Team I applied for a workshop called the New England Environmental Education Conference and Sustainable School Summit. The conference takes place at Salve Regina University during the first weekend of November. Mr. Magers wants to do a presentation explaining the importance of incorporating environmental sustainability programs in schools. Though he is a perfect fit for this conference, an application must be filled out and it is not guaranteed that he will be able to do a presentation. I filled out the application to the best of my ability and explained that his overall goal is to invoke other schools and organizations to start up their own Green Scholars programs. Within the application, I also explained how his presentation will show how to approach starting up these programs. In order for a successful Green Scholars program, it is necessary that there is a strong connection with the community and it is important that community partners are established. He also intends on explaining the benefits of Green Scholars programs in schools and how having an advisor makes it possible to define goals and projects. After I filled out this application, I filled up the jugs of water in the storage room. It took me so long to fill them up but I am happy I did it so tomorrow when I need to water the plants I will be all good to go. I love watering plants because it gives me a chance to walk around and it makes me feel better knowing that they are getting the water they need so they will not die.

Happy Monday

Today I started my day ready to write a grant for the Green Team. I went through the excel list of grants that I composed and then started further researching them so that I could pick one to work on. After reading through a lot of the grants, I realized that I just do not know enough about grants to write one in such a short amount of time. I got wicked stressed since there isn’t even a week left and I knew that it could potentially be bad because I didn’t want to start it and not be able to finish it, especially knowing that it was the first grant I would have ever written. I explained this to Mr. Magers that this job might not be for me and I am thankful that he is very understanding because he told me that I could work on other things instead. After that conversation I felt bad so I went around and collected the compost from around the school. Composting is probably the most disgusting task there is in the Green Team, so it is definitely not something I would like to do again because old dripping food is not something I am very excited about. After I collected compost I went around and collected teracycle. Teracycle is still gross but still far less disgusting than composting. It took me about two hours to collect all the compost and teracycle from all the rooms in the school building. I just finished that and next I am going to order three plaques for certificates that Mr. Magers and other green scholars have won. I am trying to find a bamboo plaque because that is the most environmentally sustainable and this is the Green Team so it makes sense!

Grants and Plants!

Yesterday was another successful day at the Manchester Essex Green Team. After a lot of research, I came up with about eight different grants that the Manchester Essex Green Team is eligible to apply for. After I found those eight grants, it was then time for me to further investigate these grants. I clicked on their links and went through all of their descriptions, requirements, deadlines, and any other information I could find on them. The reason I extensively researched them so much is because I needed to choose the one that I thought was the best so that I could start the application process. I have never written a grant before so I am hoping that everything works out well because I do not want to mess it up. It would be amazing if the grant that I filled out ended up being awarded to the Green Team because I know how important that would be for everyone involved in this organization. After I went through and chose the grant that I will start today, I then attended a Green Team meeting. After the meeting, I watered some plants around the school. Watering the plants is actually a wicked difficult process because a lot of the pots are broken so water leaks everywhere. Water went everywhere when I watered this one particular plant, so I had to run and find towels because school was getting out soon and I was really paranoid that some little old woman or man was going to slip on it.

Natalie: Happy Tuesday Everyone

Today at my internship I discussed a new project with Mr. Magers. For the remainder of SCORE I am also going to be working on writing grants, which are funds that are donated to nonprofit organizations by either a business or an individual. In order to receive these funds a big application needs to be filled out and it is not guaranteed that the grant will be awarded because many other people usually apply for it as well. There are many different grants available out there that the Green Team is eligible for once the application is filled out. Today, Mr. Magers gave me a list of sources where some grants may be apply to the Green Team and I worked on locating specific grants and then putting the ones we have a chance on winning into an excel so that we can apply to them in the near future. In the excel document, I organized my information into three columns. The first column is labeled Grant Maker, the second Grant Title, and the last one is the URL that is needed to locate that grant. Tomorrow I am going to work on actually filling out these grants and I am excited to do that because I know it could potentially bring in a lot of money.

Natalie: Blog

Yesterday at my internship I started my day off by walking down to the Manchester Hardware Store. I needed to get two pieces of 11 by 14 plexi glass for the plaques that we purchased.  I needed to walk down there because I don’t have a car so it was nice to get some fresh air. After I picked up the plexi glass I proceeded back to the school. When I was five minutes away from the school I realized that I did not have my phone and I was positive that I left the school with it because I talked to my mom on the phone. I turned around and ran back down town and traced my steps and could not find it anywhere. I still haven’t found it so that’s a bummer but on the bright side we got our plexi glass. When I got back to the school, I printed some more donation letters and then put them in addressed envelopes. After I fill out letters and stuff envelopes, I have to go down to the Superintendent’s office and stamp them with the stamping machine. After that, I organized the teracycle into different categories. There is a big bin where everything that is considered teracycle is dumped and I went through that bin and separated them. It is kind of a gross task because it is everyone’s used bags but it could definitely be worse.  I could only tolerate that task for about a half hour so after that I filled up gallon jugs with water so that they could be used to water the plants around the building.

Rough Draft

Natalie Caponigro

Ms. DuBois

The Environmental Crisis

            The atmosphere is an essential system that helps to regulate Earth's climate and distribute heat around the globe. Every year, billions of tons of harmful carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere from human activity alone. Burning anything that contains carbon is what releases carbon dioxide into the air, while deforestation, the process of cutting down or burning trees and other plants, disrupts Earth’s natural cycles even more so because it drastically reduces the amount of oxygen that is being produced. Aside from deforestation, humans simply just produce too much carbon dioxide for the Earth to handle. The unhealthy amount of carbon dioxide that is released into the atmosphere and the shortage of oxygen that is released into the atmosphere both contribute to global warming, which is the increase in the Earth’s temperature due to the buildup of these gases. Though the climate change may be considered the most dangerous part of the environmental crisis, lands and bodies of water are suffering as well, which is also worsened by human impact. Although many people may be skeptical, it is obvious that human activity is absolutely contributing to this environmental emergency, but either way it should not be debated, it should be solved. Environmental conservation is extremely important and it is necessary that drastic measures be taken by businesses, nonprofit organizations, and individuals everywhere in order to preserve the Earth for generations to come, especially because humans contributed and continue to contribute to this mess.

            The climate on Earth is subject to natural change over time; however, human activities are completely altering the climate system because of the huge increase of heat trapping gases into the atmosphere. In fact, global average surface temperatures have risen about one point four degrees Fahrenheit just since the twentieth century, making the planet warmer than it has been in thousands of years. This particular problem is caused mainly by the human combustion of fossil fuels, which are organic materials that naturally forms fuel over millions of years after dead animals or plants die and are exposed to intense pressures and temperatures and are nonrenewable resources. These fossil fuels; the most major being oil, coal, and natural gas, are primarily used to create energy. Though without these resources the planet would not be nearly as industrialized as it is today, the exuberant amount of fossil fuels that are being burned by humans is just too much, especially keeping deforestation in mind. The surface of the Earth is warmed by light from the sun that passes through the atmosphere and Earth’s surface then releases that heat into the air allowing the temperature to be livable. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, absorb this heat and without them the heat would be lost in space so they are extremely important; however, if there are too much of these greenhouse gases, too much heat is being absorbed and trapped which leads to the unhealthy increase in temperature.

Oil, being the main energy source of this time period, can definitely be considered one of the ultimate contributors to the global warming crisis. The thick, black substance is stored in large tanks at oil refineries and then heated up in order to split it up into various different types of products. Oil and petroleum are used for a variety of different reasons, the most common being transportation fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and jet-fuel. Considering there are over a billion cars worldwide, the amount of oil that is being burned by humans daily is unimaginable. Other frequent uses include heating for homes, fertilizer, and the production of almost anything that is plastic. Combustion of oil is not the only drawback; the retraction of oil can result in oil spills which can cause serious pollution to the environment, even if only a small amount, which potentially threatens the extinction of various different plants and animals, especially if that oil ends up in a body of water. On top of that, mining for oil destroys natural habitats while the refining process uses high amounts of energy and multiple toxic chemical that pollute the atmosphere even more so. It is also important to consider the transportation of oil is necessary which only further adds to the burning of this fossil fuel.

            Coal, the most abundant of all fossil fuels, is a dark, rocklike substance that is made up of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and varying amounts of sulfur. Coal is extracted from underground mines, which is difficult, dangerous and ruinous to the environment. After mined, coal is transported to power plants in order to generate electricity; in fact, almost all of the coal that is produced is used solely to generate energy.  This is done by burning the coal in a boiler in order to produce steam and the steam is then run through a turbine, a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy. Not only is coal the most carbon intensive of the fossil fuels, “It also produces provides sulfur dioxide, a gas that contributes to acid rain, and mercury, which poisons the environment and people,” (Heignberg 14). This process generates electricity for large scale places such as power plants which contribute a substantial amount to the emission of various greenhouse gases.

The last of the most important fossil fuels, natural gas, has thousands of uses, the most common being heating homes and producing products such as steel, glass, and paint. It is a colorless and odorless substance so a chemical smelling similar to sulfur is added to it for safety purposes. The retrieval of natural gas is harmful to the environment because it is obtained thousands of feet underground through a process called hydraulic fracturing, also referred to as fracking.   This technique process includes, “pumping millions of gallons of water, sand and toxic chemicals (including carcinogens) underground,” (wilderness.org). It is proven that fracking disturbs and threatens wild lands, contaminates potential drinking water, and pollutes the air because of the multiple chemicals that get injected into the ground. Although technically the burning of natural gas is relatively clean and efficient, it is not worth the harmful side effects

If production and usage of these three fossil fuels does not substantially slow down, the Earth is going to experience even more climate increases. There have already been observable negative effects on the environment from the increase in climate including wild fires, the shrinkage of glaciers, accelerated sea level rises, and longer, more intense heat waves, all which can potentially lead to not only the death of many people and animals, but also the extinction of various plants and animals. If nothing is done regarding this issue, the Earth’s temperature will increase even more so and living conditions will become much worse, eventually making too hot Earth and simply unlivable. It is a necessity that the use of renewable energy technologies, or forms of energy that can constantly be replenished, expands. Solar, wind, and water are all important forms of renewable energy resources; each based around the sun either directly or indirectly. Despite the immense environmental benefits that renewable energy can potentially have, “[If] the United States was represented by a pie, only a thin slice—roughly 6 percent—would represent renewables,” (Heinburg 19). This percentage is simply too miniscule especially considering the problems at hand caused by nonrenewable sources, and it is essential that citizens are introduced and taught at local levels about the benefits of this form of energy in order to reduce the to expand the usage not only locally, but nationally.

The sun is the greatest and most powerful source of energy on the planet, so the uses of solar powered technologies absolutely need to be integrated into many communities. In fact, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, more solar energy strikes the earth than consumed globally in electric power throughout twenty-seven years. There are two main categories associated with solar power usage, one being passively, which is when “…energy is captured mainly through the design and orientation of a building, or through some of its elements, to take advantage of exposure to the sun” (Heinburg 20).  Though this particular type of solar usage is unquestionably considered the most efficient use of solar power, it is obviously only available to buildings and homes that have not been built or designed yet so there is an alternative for preexisting buildings and homes. Active-solar systems, the second main type of solar design, “…involve installing special equipment that uses energy from the sun to heat water or living spaces to generate electricity” (Heinburg 20). Active-solar systems are broken down into different two categories, one being photovoltaic systems, which are responsible for producing electricity. The second type of active-solar systems, solar domestic hot water systems, requires panels that absorb and produce heat. Not only are these systems extremely beneficial to the global warming crisis, the cost has dropped substantially since first introduced, and best of all these systems generally do not require electrical or mechanical devices to function.

*This paragraph is not done* Another renewable source is wind power, which is when wind is converted into useful forms of energy through the “…Earth’s solar energy flux, which causes differences in atmospheric temperatures and pressures that drive winds” (learner.org) According to American Win Energy Association, “As of 1999, global wind energy capacity topped 10,000 megawatts, which is approximately 16 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity,” (altenergy.org)  

WATER POWER PARAGRAPH

Oceans, covering three-quarters of our planet’s surface, play a significant role in creating conditions for life on land. Along with the atmosphere, oceans regulate global temperatures and shape climate patterns. On top of that, oceans naturally capture more than half of the Earth’s carbon dioxide and put them in underground carbon sinks, or ecosystems that naturally store carbon dioxide, through a process called sequestration. This process is extremely beneficial; however, if the temperatures in the ocean continue to rise and the carbon dioxide sequestration is halted even a little, this could potentially be an extremely dangerous predicament because the planet is already overloaded with way too much carbon dioxide. On the other side, too much carbon dioxide absorption is also potentially harmful because if the ocean becomes too acidified by increased levels of unnatural carbon dioxide, many essential underwater organisms will be negatively impacted. It is important to know that it takes the ocean about four times as long as the atmosphere to heat up because water has a higher specific heat capacity than air. What this means is that though scientists do not necessarily know what will happen next, it is entirely probable that the ocean will sequester too much. Either way, it is unhealthy for the ocean to absorb too much or too little which is just another reason humans drastically need to regulate the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because it directly affects the planet’s incredibly important oceans.

Rising temperatures and global warming is a reoccurring topic when it comes to the environmental crisis regarding oceans; however human activity such as pollution from runoff, dumping of waste, and overfishing is also negatively impacting the planet. Runoff pollution is when toxins from pesticides, chemicals, and other unwanted substances flow into the ocean during rain fall which not only contaminates the ocean but is also kills off marine life. Almost every vehicle slowly contributes to this because oil spills one-drop-at-a-time on to roads and eventually makes their way into oceans and other bodies of water. Waste dumping is also responsible for a great deal of pollution, in fact, “The dumping of industrial, nuclear and other waste into oceans was legal until the early 1970's when it became regulated; however, dumping still occurs illegally everywhere” (marinebio.org). The most common type of waste that is illegally dumped into oceans includes, “dredged material, industrial waste, sewage sludge, and radioactive waste” (marinebio.org). Dredged materials are excavated materials that accumulate in water bodies, which alone add up to millions of tons of materials dumped. Dredged materials alone are harmful, but over half of the dredged materials become increasingly worsened because they are polluted by heavy metals and oils that contain various dangerous pesticides. Lastly, overfishing, or situations where one or more fish stocks are significantly reduced by fishing activities, can get to a point of no recovery. If that specific species becomes so depleted, it can cause further problems because other species may have relied on them. Water is necessary for drinking, sanitation, agriculture, and industry, so contaminated water is considered both an environmental and public health issue.

Happy Wednesday :)

Today during SCORE I was allowed more time to write my essay. I am wicked thankful that Mr. Magers is giving me time during the day to complete it because like I said in my last blog; it allows me to get answers to questions I am not sure of because he is right there if I need anything. Throughout the day, I worked on my essay for probably a total of three hours. That allowed me to finish up most of it which am so happy about because tomorrow is my sisters birthday and I want to have it done by then. After I worked on my essay, I went to Mr. Magers mail box and picked up his letters and saw that I received some more donations. I was so relieved to see that my letters are successfully being sent now, so that definitely brightened my day.  When I walked back to his room I went through the checks that I received and wrote thank you letters to the businesses that donated. I know that they really appreciate it when we send them thank you letters very shortly after their donations are sent to us because it shows that we genuinely appreciate their help.  After that, I helped Sophomore Sam Koufman measure a wall down by the dining hall because he is ordering new signs that are going to be very big and he needs to make sure there will be enough room. That was definitely interesting because we didn't get a ladder so we had to find crates and other things to stand on.  

Natalie Blog

I ended up being able to figure out how to add a “Donate Now” button to the Manchester Essex Green Team website. Instead of linking it through a small business that would probably take about 6% per donation, I found a way to link it straight through PayPal. I thought this would be way more efficient because PayPal only deducts 2.5% per donation. Although I figured out how to do this, I could not exactly figure out how to put it on the website because I’ve never worked with websites before. A Green Team Scholar, Rachel Daley, is helping me with this process because she is very good when it comes to that kind of stuff. After I figured all of this out, I worked on my research paper for a little bit. I was happy that Mr. Magers gave me the opportunity to work on it because he is very knowledgeable on the subject so if I had any questions I knew that I could count on him to help me out to the best of his ability. After I worked on my paper for about 45 minutes, I walked around and watered the plants around the school. It was a nice change of pace because it was different than sitting in front of a computer screen. After I watered the plants, I went to back to the Green Team room and wrote thank you cards to the businesses that generously donated to our nonprofit organization. I always like writing thank you cards because it show s the businesses that we really appreciate our help. 

Donate Now

This morning in the Green Team I started a new project. For nonprofit organizations such as the Manchester Essex Green Team, there are such things as a “Donate Now” button. Basically, it is a button that you can press on these organizations websites so that you can donate money at any time. I am working on getting one of those buttons started up for the Green Team since I have been in charge of fundraising for the past few weeks. In order to get one of these buttons on the website, I have to link up with a small business and the donations will then go through them first. It is nice that small businesses are willing to help nonprofit organizations, but they’re not doing it for free; these small businesses take a small percentage of the donation so they are getting something out of it to. Right now I am researching small businesses in the area and I am going to attempt to link up with one of them today. I am not exactly sure what businesses are willing to help around but I think that this button is a great idea, especially because the business receives a portion and it is a greener alternative than sending letters. I hope that it is not hard to find a business to help though, because Mr. Magers already attempted to get this started up but the man he was working with completely blew him off and stopped answering his emails and calls and I really hope that doesn’t happen to me.

Happy Friday

Today when I came into the Green Team room there were envelopes waiting for me in my drawer. I received some donations so the next step is to send them a personalized and handwritten thank you note. After I carefully write out the thank you note, I then have to print them out a sheet that tells them their tax exemption number for their donation. I thought it was funny that I got a donation from Fortune Palace because I always didn’t send them a letter asking to donate and now I’m happy that I did. After I wrote out a couple thank you letters, I then printed out some letters and stuffed them into envelopes. Then I ordered some Frisbees online for Mr. Magers ultimate Frisbee team and that took me about 4 minutes. After I did that I proceeded down to the Superintendent’s office and stamped the letters that I just stuffed and addressed. The stamping machine has been a lot nicer to me lately so that’s good. After that I walked around and watered some plants around the building because they looked wicked thirsty. This is embarrassing, but in the library there is a fake tree, and I accidentally watered it and got water everywhere. Ms. Hunt wasn’t mad though she thought it was funny because it was a stupid mistake. Watering the plants took me so long because I had to fill up about 20 gallons of water which took forever. I enjoyed watering them though because I liked walking around.

Blog

Yesterday in Green Team I finally ordered that plexi glass for the plaques. I’m really not sure why it was so stressful to order but it was. That only took a few minutes though so after that I hung up some Green Team posters around the school. Sometimes I like doing that because I get to get up and walk around and it’s a nice change because I’m always sitting at a desk and looking at a computer screen. Sometimes I feel like my eyeballs are melting because I look at a computer screen for so long but like I said in another post, I don’t mind because I like what I’m doing. I like knowing that I am raising money for the Green Team because it is a nonprofit organization that is looking to just get bigger and better and I like knowing that I am an important part of this. Since I’ve started this project, I’ve raised about 700 dollars and I want to just keep raising more and more. I would like to start up a whole other fundraising project but SCORE isn’t for much longer and this particular project still has a lot to go so I’m not sure if I’ll get to it. After I worked on the fundraising project for a while, I called businesses that send our school spam faxes. That means that unwanted faxes are being printed to our school which is obviously not a green thing so I call them and nicely ask to be taken off their list. That is sometimes interesting because all the people react differently.

Monday

Today in Green Team I started my morning off by finding more businesses to add to my mailing list but I didn’t actually fill out or send any letters today. After a few hours of adding these businesses names and addresses to my excel spreadsheet, I moved on to another project. Mr. Magers needed me to order some plaques so that he could put certificates that the Green Team won in them. The plaques needed to be 12x15 to fit the 11x14 certificate. All the plaques online were really expensive but after a little while I realized that my dad sells sports memorabilia using the same plaques so he was able to order us the same plaques at a much cheaper wholesale price. Although this was nice, it is also really stressful because it does not come with the plexiglass that covers the certificate part. All day I have been trying to find businesses that sell 11x14 pieces of plexiglass and it isn’t going too well. I got really fed up with that because nothing was successful so I decided I am just going to deal with it tomorrow. After that, I worked on a waste management power point with Mr. Magers because he has a presentation tomorrow. I went around and took some pictures of terracycling and single stream recycling so that he could add them to his power point. I learned a lot about district wide waste management when I helped him with his power point because it was filled with information about single steam recycling, composting, and terracycling.  

Natalie: TGIF(Week 2)

Yesterday was another eventful day at the Green Team. I know it seems like all I ever do is stuff envelopes and mail letters, but I actually really like doing it because I know it’s going to a good cause and also because it makes me feel kind of important. I decided I was going to take a new approach to this fundraising project today though. I deleted the entire messed up excel because no matter how hard I tried, it was all jumbled up and confusing and it just wasn’t worth it to me so I know the best thing to do was to start fresh. I decided I’m not going to let anyone else help me with this project (I know it’s bad, but I like to work alone). Instead of going to a website that lists all the businesses and their addresses in Manchester and Essex, I thought that it would be more efficient if I started by composing a list of businesses that I know actually exist. The website that listed all the businesses and their addresses was frequently wrong and I realized that it is actually hurting me more than helping me so I think that this new approach will be good. For most of the day I worked on compiling new business addresses which was somewhat tedious but it had to be done. Today I will print out and send off some more letters to these businesses and I hope to receive some donations in the next few days!

Boston

Yesterday for SCORE I traveled to Boston with four other members of the Green Team and Mr. Magers. We went to the State House because Manchester Essex Green Team and its members received awards for their green excellence. We started off our morning at 7:30 and met here at the school and then we went and got breakfast. I thought that was nice because it really shows that Mr. Magers truly cares about his students and likes to spend time with them.  After we ate, we took the train to Boston. From the train station, we walked about 15 minutes to the State House. Once we got there we went into a big room and the ceremony started. It was really inspirational to watch all the individuals talk about conserving the environment because a lot of the people were so passionate about it and it was really nice to see. There was a girl, Andrea, who talked to us about all the work she has done during her four years of high school. She cried because she’s graduating this year and it was so obvious that this is an issue that really hits close to come with her. After the two and a half hour ceremony, we got to see some of the second floor of the State House. There were a lot of beautiful rooms so I really liked that we had an opportunity to do that. After the tour, we walked back to north station. I had a really fun day and I learned a lot more about the importance of environmental sustainability and I am happy that I got to be a part of the experience.

Rainy Day

Today at SCORE started off nice but then turned stressful. I started my morning off by hanging up some signs around the school that inform students about either the Green Team or just being green in general. They are all really nice posters that are laminated and they catch your eye because they’re colorful so I had fun hanging them up. After I hung up some of those I proceeded back to the Green Team room and saw something that really upset me. Right in front on my eyes there was a pile of about 100 letters. They were all the letters that I tediously filled out, stamped, and sent. I was horrified to realize that every single letter was unsuccessfully sent and I was very puzzled as to why that was. Finally it dawned on me, the Excel spreadsheet that I created got messed up. Senior Magers gave other students a community service opportunity by letting students find more business contacts and add to them to my excel sheet. I was so happy that people were going to help, until I realized that whoever did it alphabetized the first column of the excel spreadsheet (that had the business name) and forgot to also shift the corresponding addresses with the business name. What this means is that every single address was paired with the wrong business which resulted with me doing hours of work for nothing. I understand that accidents happen but I have been spending basically all day trying to find the most sufficient (and green) way to fix this problem.

Eventful Day

Today was another eventful day at the Manchester Essex Green Team. I started my morning off by printing about 50 donation letters and stuffing them into envelopes. That process took me about two and a half hours and after that I told Mr. Magers that my eyeballs were going to fall out of my head if I looked at a computer screen any longer so he gave me a new task that involved walking around. I got a stack of various posters that raise environment sustainability awareness and I walked around the school building and hung them up. It was a nice change of pace and the posters are actually really interesting and quite informative. After that, I proceeded back to the Green Team room where I was given another task. I got a stack of papers that had phone numbers on them, and I was asked to call the numbers and tell them to stop sending Manchester Essex High School faxes because they’re both unwanted and not green because they print on paper. That was interesting because some of the people seemed wicked mad at me when I nicely asked them to take MERHS off the faxing list, but I was still polite because it’s just not worth the effort to be mean. I could only tolerate that task for about a half hour because it was somewhat tedious, so I proceeded to the basement so that I could stamp and seal my envelopes that I completed today. The process went way smoother than it did yesterday so I was excited about that.

Day 2 at the Office

I did a lot of different things at SCORE today. This morning I started off by printing some more donation letters and then stuffing them in envelopes. After that, I brought the pile of stuffed enveloped I had down to Ms. Lumsden because she usually mails them for me. She brought me down to a room in the basement and showed me a machine that stamps and seals envelopes for you. It was a relatively easy process so after a woman showed me how to use the machine she left. When she left I tried to push the envelopes through the machine and like five of them got stuck. I wasn’t sure if I should tell anyone because I was wicked embarrassed but after I failed at trying to pull the envelopes out of the machine I knew that I had no other choice. I told the woman and she wasn’t mad at all because she was honestly so nice. It is obvious this envelope machine made a big impact on my day because I just described it for so long. Anyway, after the envelope incident was over I proceeded to the Green Team room and helped Mr. Magers enter some grades into his grade book. My eyes hurt from looking at a computer screen all day and I miss my mom.  After that I printed up some more letters which of course meant I had to go face the envelope contraption once again. The second time was not any better but on the bright side everyone in the office in the basement is so sweet and helpful.

Day One of SCORE

 

Yesterday was my first day of SCORE and I am working with the Manchester Essex Green Team. I started a fundraising project a few months ago with the Green Team because I needed my community service hours so I worked on that project yesterday. The Green Team relies entirely on grants and donations from the community so raising money is a very important aspect of the Green Team. When I was doing community service, I was responsible for compiling an excel document of local Essex or Manchester businesses and their addresses. I then created a formal letter to send to those businesses. Although it sounds easy, it is actually kind of complicated because there are so many little steps. After I print a specific letter for the business, I then have to flip it around so that I can print the outline of an envelope on the back. The envelope is for the businesses that do decide to donate money and it just one way that the Green Team reuses paper. I sent out about 50 of those letters asking for donations yesterday and I still have a lot more to do. After I finished the letters I talked with Mr. Magers about other tasks I will be working on during my SCORE project and I am excited to learn more because the Green Team is something that really interests me.  I really like my project so far but I wish there were some windows in the Green Team room.  

Natalie Caponigro Outline

Introduction:

What is global warming? What is environmental conservation?

a.       Importance of environmental conservation

b.      Consequences if not conserved

c.       Renewable and nonrenewable resources

d.      Nonprofit organizations (Green Team)

e.       How those organizations make money to expand

f.       Different parts (water, air, land, ect)

g.      What is caused by humans and what is caused by nature

Thesis: Environmental conservation is extremely important because it is not an issue that will just disappear with no effort. Drastic measures have to be taken by businesses, nonprofit organizations, and individuals everywhere in order to reduce the harmful carbon footprint that was caused by man in the first place.

1.      Global Warming

a.       What is it

b.      Where did it come from

c.       Man fault? Nature fault?

d.      Controversies

e.       Different parts of global warming

2.      Water

a.       Importance of having water- renewable or renewable?

b.      Importance of saving water

c.       Issues with water

d.      Solutions

e.       International Organizations doing something about it and how that organization grows and what they’re doing to receive funds

3.      Land

a.       Importance of having land- is it renewable or renewable?

b.      Importance of saving land

c.       Issues with land

d.      Solutions

e.       International nonprofit organizations doing something about it and how that organization grows and what they’re doing to receive funds

4.      Energy

a.       Importance of having energy- renewable or renewable

b.      Importance of saving energy

c.       Issues with energy

d.      Solutions

e.       International nonprofit organizations doing something about it and how that organization grows and what they’re doing to receive funds

5.      Air and Climate

a.       Global Warming- what is it?

b.      Importance of clean air

c.       Climate change – what is it? Why is their climate change?

d.      Issues

e.       Solutions

6.      Recycling

a.       What is recycling?

b.      How does it help?

c.       How long has it been around?

d.      Importance of recycling

e.       Benefits of recycling

f.       Recycling in businesses, schools, ect.

g.      Issues

h.      Solutions

7.      Composting

a.       What is composting?

b.      How does it help?

c.       How long has it been around?

d.      Importance of composting

e.       Benefits of composting

f.       Composting in businesses, schools, ect

g.      Issues

h.      Solutions

8.      Reduce and Reuse

a.       What is it

b.      How it helps

c.       Importance

9.      Being Green in Businesses

a.       How it helps

b.      Importance

c.       How it saves money

d.      How it attracts more people

e.       Specific businesses

f.       Issues

g.      Solutions

10.  Nonprofit organizations

a.       What they do

b.      Where they are

c.       How big they are, how many members

d.      What they do to receive funding

11.  Conclusion  

                                    Works Cited (that I plan on using)

Interviews: 1.) Eric Magers

                    2.) to be determined

Periodicals

Bock, Gordon. "Energy-saving stars: being efficient about energy upgrades can save you lots of green." Old House Journal Apr.-May 2013: 26+. General OneFile. Web. 15 Mar. 2013.

McDonnell, Tim. "Climate Change: Even Worse Than We Feared." Nationaljournal.com 11 Mar. 2013. General OneFile. Web. 15 Mar. 2013.

Solomon, Andrew. "The Brutal Years." The New York Times Book Review 3 Mar. 2013: 1(L). General OneFile. Web. 15 Mar. 2013.

Books

Gore, Albert. An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It. Emmaus, PA: Rodale, 2006.

Zevenbergen, Leen. Sustainablilty @  The Speed Of Passion. ( I just ordered the book, as soon as I know the rest of the works cited I will add it!)