This year our school has been taking part in the ‘One Good Idea’ competition run by SEAI Ireland. This competition aims to foster innovative ideas in schools and encourage children to engage in different elements of campaign work. It is about inspiring people to make a difference and help prevent climate change.
What is Ogonnelloe National School’s idea?
Our ‘One Good Idea’ was to have a meat free day at school once a week for 6 weeks and calculate how much meat we could cut down on in our daily lives and compare this with energy savings. The idea was to calculate the amount energy used in the production of meat and determine if by cutting back we could help the environment. We calculated how much meat we saved over the 6 week period across the whole school. The project tracked how much water and energy that is used to produce meat from field to dinner plate. We then compared this energy with that of a vegetarian meal and discovered that we can save energy and money by cutting down our meat consumption a little. Our results were surprising as we discovered that by cutting down our meat intake once a week, we can have a positive impact on climate change and reduce energy consumption.
Our idea impressed the SEAI judges and we were selected for the National Final in Dublin Castle on May 14th. Out of hundreds of schools nationwide we have now made the top 10 schools in Ireland for our innovative idea.
Our unique idea made it onto the papers and we even had an interview on Clare FM’s Morning Focus where the children spoke about our campaign. We also had a shout out on National Television where the hosts of the 6 O’Clock Show on Virgin Media talked about our campaign and the positive impact our school was having on the environment.
National Final Day
We arrived early to Dublin Castle where we were greeted by the ‘One Good Idea’ team. We were served breakfast and were given the opportunity to showcase our exhibition display to the Judges and other schools. We were then shown the arena where we would give our presentation to the SEAI judges and other schools.
Our presentation to the judges went brilliantly and we answered all the questions that the judges asked. The feedback we received was extremely positive but unfortunately we just missed out on the top prize. Please follow this link to view the overall winners and and videos of the event : https://www.seai.ie/teaching-sustainability/one-good-idea/2019-winners/
Overall it was a fantastic experience to make the final 10 schools nationwide and make a presentation to a group of expert judges in a wonderful venue at Dublin Castle. We learned so much through the experience about climate change and the environment and we learned to research and make presentations to an audience. We worked extremely hard on this project and would like to thank everyone who helped us along the way. Hopefully we will come up with a new idea in the future that brings us back to the National Finals in Dublin.
Green School Committee