The 12th annual Spokane Youth Environmental Conference (SYEC) was held on April 28, 2009. The 2009 conference theme was “Go Green” and attracted over 100 students and teachers from Spokane County schools. This year, as guests of the conference, students from Tekoa Elementary School gave a special presentation titled “Hangman Creek Water Quality.” They were not evaluated on their presentation and accompanying posters.
2009 SYEC Journal
Day of Conference Activities:
Registration/Check-in/Poster Exhibit Set-up: Teachers and students arrived and after checking-in, students displaying posters began setting them up on tables disbursed throughout the common area of SCC’s Student “Lair” building. Each conference attendee received a conference folder about the day’s activities.
Opening Session: Enviro Jeopardy provided a fun-spirited challenge to begin the day. Students answered environmental questions prepared by
conference staff.
Morning Break-Out Presentation Session: Thirteen student presentations were heard in four different rooms. Each room had a facilitator and team of evaluators. Evaluators were responsible for reviewing the presentations and scoring them based on a rubric designed by educators. The rubric focused on the hypothesis and conclusion, but also assessed references used and overall presentation by the students. A presentation hunt was created for students who did poster projects to encourage them to apply what they had learned.
Poster Exhibition and Evaluation: Fourteen student posters were displayed and evaluated in the main hallway of the “Lair.” A team of two evaluators reviewed the posters and scored them on the scientific content and the appearance. A nine question poster hunt was created for students who did oral presentations to encourage them to learn more about the projects displayed.
Lunch: Students turned in their poster or presentation hunt form as their ticket for lunch. A sit-down lunch was provided for all attendees, courtesy of the Spokane Regional Solid Waste System. During lunch, students were invited to participate in an environmental Limerick Smackdown. Students created a limerick or rap relating to the “Go Green” conference theme and presented it to the audience of attendees. If space allows, the limericks and/or raps will be included in the Journal of Superior Projects.
The Green School Challenge Activity: After lunch, students participated in a new activity. They were divided up into four rooms and challenged to brainstorm ideas for how they could make their school more “green.” Each room chose a topic or a few topics and created posters filled with post-it notes of action items.
Tekoa Elementary School Presentation: This was a special presentation on “Hangman Creek Water Quality” and included a display of eight connected posters that explained the students’ research on Hangman Creek. The presentation and its posters were not evaluated in terms of a rubric or potential “superior” project. The conference gave these students an opportunity to share their hard work and findings.
Closing: The students joined in the Auditorium for the conference closing, which began with recognizing the teachers. Teachers were given bags made from leftover conference t-shirts, as well as wildflower seeds and pens—all donated by the conference committee. Students who received a “superior” rating were then invited to the stage area. Each project was mentioned and the superior students received blue ribbons. They were also sent a gift card to Auntie’s Bookstore after the conference.
Evaluation and Student Notebooks – When students turned in their conference evaluation form, they received locally-produced notebooks made out of re-used materials. In addition, magnets and pencils provided by the conference committee were available to the students.
