Eco-friendly projects help students make a difference

Green tea? Not exactly.

In a maze of wind turbine replicas and compost bins at Hubble Middle School’s recent Eco Fair, Cam Silberg’s tea seemed like a refreshing, organic concoction.

So many students wanted to sample the dark brown liquid in the soda bottle that the 13-year-old had to write a warning label in red and black letters: “Good for plants. Not for you.”

It was worm tea. Two liters filled with microorganisms, minerals — and worm excrement. The concoction is brewed from vermicomposting, when worms turn waste like food scraps into an alternative fertilizer for plants, Cam explained. And it didn’t smell like its name.

Cam says he’s been sprinkling some on a hibiscus plant for a couple of weeks.

“This plant was almost dead,” he said.

But his green thumb and worm tea rescued the plant from a scrawny, Charlie-Brown-Christmas-tree fate.

“This is so easy,” Cam said. “It’s that simple.”

Cam was one of dozens of students who debuted their yearlong projects Thursday at the school’s second annual Eco Fair. They researched and presented their findings on environmental subjects ranging from wind energy to waste-free lunches.

Another student-led project tackled a problem at the Warrenville school: a population boom of grasshoppers on the building’s green roof.

Students hunted for insect species that would naturally control the grasshoppers. Several suggested releasing ladybugs or dusting plants with a natural pesticide of flour and molasses.

“Drawing the connections is so cool,” said Brian Harris, Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 superintendent. “That’s an issue up on our green roof, and they’re solving the problem.”

Carolyn John, a seventh-grade math and science teacher who guided the project, said the group would release green lacewings (praying mantis egg cases hadn’t hatched yet) after a meeting with the building’s facilities manager.

“There is so much focus in this school on the environment,” John said. “They can’t escape it here.”

Signs in hallways remind students of the building’s eco-friendly design. One listed the recycled materials used in its construction. Opening in 2009, the school earned Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification, a coveted recognition in the green building industry.

Since December, students have spent 40 minutes each week working on their projects.

While Cam doesn’t want students sipping his tea, he hopes the fair galvanizes them into eco-friendly and sustainable lifestyles.

“We need to protect the resources we have right now,” he said. “We have to start going natural and organic.”

He plans to talk his family into buying a high-tech compost bin with three levels and a porous filter to collect the tea in a bucket.

“I’m saving the environment,” he said.