On a grey, rainy Friday, Alex Weisner, Beth Multagh and Alina Pejkovic huddle in a picnic shelter at Rocky Point Park to review their checklist.

Already this morning, the girls have hiked through Shoreline Park to Old Orchard Park on Port Moody’s north shore to collect evidence for their final Grade 8 team science project.

Under the “ecology” category, they’ve documented examples of fresh and salt water; plants that absorb moisture through soil and air; evaporation and/or condensation; erosion, floodplain and wildlife.

Under the “history” file, they’ve answered questions about why the Coast Salish First Nations, the military and CP Rail were attracted to the area.

They’ve left the “social responsibility” category for last. Under this topic, they must show how humans have made positive and negative changes to the park. They’re also required to make the environment a better place than when they arrived.

The subject of social responsibility is a major part of education these days, says Scott Creek middle teacher Robin Charboneau, who escorted the 56 Grade 8 students with fellow teacher Chris Hunter for the school’s first Great Rocky Point Eco-Challenge.

With digital cameras in hand, Weisner, Multagh and Pejkovic stroll towards the pier and snap photos of the Boathouse Restaurant construction in the parking lot.

Across the field, Shayne Wilkinson and teammate co-worker Alex Bond, both 13, shoot images of wildlife (as listed under the “ecology” category): pigeons, Canada geese, seagulls.

They say they’ll come back on the weekend to take more pictures to illustrate their story, which will be presented during the week of April 30 to May 4 via PowerPoint (during the interview, they consider using songs from rap singer Sean Paul or Earth, Wind and Fire as background music).

In total, they estimate they’ll spend about 15 hours to consolidate their final assignment (the best of the students’ work will be shown to younger grades at Scott Creek and, possibly, given to Port Moody city hall for consideration for its website).

Critical thinking and team work are also key to the assignment (students are graded on their “ethical, responsible and co-operative behaviour,” productivity, and project delivery and outcome).

If there’s a poster girl for good environmental practices, it’s Anisah Madden. The 28-year-old Coquitlam resident recycles, reduces and reuses anything she can to cut the amount of garbage she sends to the landfill.

For eight years, Madden has put her kitchen scraps in her back yard; the compost then becomes rich garden soil in which vegetables grow. Her mixed containers, newspapers and plastics are placed into the blue box. As well, her home cleaning products are “natural” and her food is purely from the earth (she works for Ladybug Organics, an organic food home-delivery service).

During last winter’s storm, when electricity was knocked out to hundreds of Tri-City homes, appliances, power tools, televisions and stereos were fried and subsequently tossed in the bin.

At her home, the native of England shows the many machines she and her roommate collected in recent months. One day, she plans to take them to Happy Stan’s, a Port Coquitlam electronics recycling firm.

She applauds the GVRD’s efforts to ban the disposal of electronics at waste transfer stations in the region. The strategy, expected to come in place this summer, would require the electronics industry to have stewardship programs in place for computers, monitors, laptops, desktop printers and televisions.

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