KCS Eco Fair

Today as part of Green Week, KCS held their first ever Eco Fair. This consisted of all the environmental projects that are been undertaken in the school this year being displayed and presented to all year groups. The Eco-Fair took place in the old gym and consisted of many stalls with projects ranging from food waste to fast fashion to sustainable farming.

Junk Kouture had a variety of projects displayed which were made from a variety of waste materials. The projects displayed were “Suit Yourself”, ‘Fairytales’. ‘Past, Present Dreams’ ‘Primadonna’ and ‘Toxicity.’

9 Young Environmentalist Awards projects were presented at the Eco-Fair. 'Fresh Herbs, Fresh Start’ provided some lovely fresh herbs for their guests to taste and gave some herb seeds and a leaflet to encourage others to grow their own herbs. The project, ‘Reduce The Plastic, That Would Be Fantastic’ sold school bottles with the KCS crest engraved on them to reduce single use plastic consumption in our school community. The project called ‘KCS Orchard’ provided leaflets on their project to raise awareness around the importance of planting trees to tackle biodiversity loss in the school community. The project called ‘Why Art Thou Wasteful’ collected second hand novels for our school library to tackle the book waste problem. The project called ‘Local Food is Miles Better’ displayed their cookbook that they created with a variety of delicious recipes with local food produce. The project ‘Bringing Birds Back’ displayed the bird feeders they created out of waste materials and they displayed the book they created as a class on the 54 endangered bird species. The project ‘Eat Green’ allowed people to taste the vegetables they have grown themselves and they provided their visitors with vegetable seeds to encourage people to plant their own vegetables. ‘Full Circle Fashion’ presented their project which highlighted the impacts fast fashion has on our environment. They asked each class group to fill out a survey to find out what prior knowledge people had on the topic. The project ‘Polluting Plastics’ presented a wave of plastic bottles to raise awareness around the issue of single use plastics, they also had a poster made up of single use plastic items to show how much plastic we use on a daily basis.

BT Young Scientist had three projects at our Eco Fair. Lilian Gleave presented her project ‘To investigate the world of fast-fashion and how to incentivise mending clothes instead of discarding them.’ Lilian received a special award: Education for Sustainable Development at the 58th BT Young Scientist Exhibition. Martha O’Sullivan and Aoibh Kirwan presented their methods, data and key findings on their project ‘An Intergenerational Study on Diets and the Awareness of The Impacts they have on Health and the Environment’. Emma Barry presented her results and conclusions on her project ‘A Comparative Study of Eco-Friendly vs Chemical Washing Up Liquid’. Conan O’Brien presented his results on his project ‘The Science of Bacteria and Virus Control Using Energy Efficient and Environmentally friendly UV LED’s’.

2nd Year CSPE classes presented their sustainable islands and their sustainable farm models. The farm model consisted of planting cover crops, planting forests, crop rotation, reusing rain water and spreading slurry with a dribble bar. Additionally, one group of 2nd years sold Fairtrade chocolate brownies which were delicious! They also provided the recipe for the Fairtrade brownies to students and staff.

Transition Year Barn Owl Project- Transition Year woodwork students presented their Barn Owl Nest Boxes at the Eco Fair. They are currently looking for suitable indoor rural areas to place these nesting boxes. The requirements are that it needs to be located 1 kilometre away from the road and it needs to be 3-4 metres above the ground.

2nd year Home Economics students presented their recycled/upcycled sewing projects. They presented some delicious apple crumble. They also created apple cider vinegar out of the peels from the apples.

Young Social Innovators (YSI)- Dearbhla Kelly, Gemma Saddles, Lily O’Leary, Mary Clare Murphy, Siobhan Queva and Ellen Crowley displayed their project called ‘Fast and Furious Fashion’. They presented their key findings on their project. In May they plan to host a fashion show where they will model clothes bought in charity shops to encourage others to buy second hand clothing.