An inspirational idea to help supermarket shoppers remember their reusable bags has won two Timaru 12-year-olds a first prize from Environment Canterbury at Timaru’s Sanford Central South Island Science and Technology Fair today (Wednesday).
Sophie Chambers and Emily Davies-Martin of Gleniti School surveyed shoppers about their shopping bag use and were pleased to find that more than 85 per cent remembered to take their reusable ones into the supermarket.
But they also learned that many people still regularly forgot and left them in the car or at home. So they came up with the idea of a brightly coloured “Got Me” key ring and a sticker as a reminder. Not only did their clever thinking lead to a first prize from Environment Canterbury but it has also attracted the interest of a major supermarket chain.
“We’ve never done anything like this before so it’s very exciting that our key chain idea might get used around New Zealand,” say the girls.
The pair won Environment Canterbury’s junior award, with the senior first prize going to 14-year-old Samantha Olley, a Year 10 Craighead Diocesan School student. Samantha’s project “Green Roofs are Good” was inspired by finding out that her aunt in the Faroe Islands off the coast of Denmark had a house with a turf roof.
“Green roofs are quite traditional there and I was curious to find out why. I found out that some of the benefits are better heat and sound insulation and stormwater retention.”
Samantha would like to see greater community awareness of the advantages of green roofs and would also be keen to see more construction companies prepared to install them.
Other Environment Canterbury prize-winners were Craighead’s Leah Hollamby with “Stop, Think, Sort”, which was second in the senior section and Danielle Ashby-Coventry, also of Craighead, was third with “Precious Water - waste not, want not”.
Junior second place-getters were Libby Davenport and Laura Cockroft of St Joseph’s School, Timaru, with “Hitching a Ride” (about pest seeds). Grace Fisher and Sarah Woodley of Geraldine High School were third with “Happy Waterways at Happibank”.
For further information: Debbie Eddington, Environment Canterbury Educator 03 687 7813.