Case Studies - Inspiration

Mullingar Educate Together – Inspiring Actions

Would you like to see what other schools are doing to learn about ways to save energy ? If you are interested in some ideas and to  find out what the students from Mullingar Educate Together National School have been busy doing please see below:

Paintings about Climate Change

Recycled Garden

Good and bad sides of weather-Exploring Climate change in pictures

Students from Mullingar Educate Together National School in Co Westmeath have been busy.  Take a look at their artwork. The theme of these paintings is ‘Good and Bad Weather’. These pictures tell a story about climate change, they show what our weather might be like in the future. Climate change is caused by too much carbon dioxide, a gas in the earth's atmosphere. When we burn fossil fuels like oil and coal to make electricity we realse lots of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. If we reduce the amount of electricity we all use we could help to stop climate change happening. Students were helped by their teacher Veronica  Trehy with the Art.

Paintings from Mullingar Education Together

Recycling Saves Energy

Look at the lovely garden the students at Mullingar Educate Together created from some old tyres and plastic buckets!
The plants were put in old tractor tyres or used catering buckets which used to have food in them.  By recycling these tyres instead of throwing them away they are helping the environment. The green plants they are growing also help the environment. These green plants take carbon dioxide out of the air and make oxygen in return.

How does recyling help to save energy?

Remember the 3 R's - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.We all waste energy and money when we throw out anything that could be reused or recycled.

When we make anything from scratch like a tractor tyre or a can of coke etc we use lots of energy to get all the materials to make it and we use lots of energy in factories to make new items. However if we recycle something or better still reuse it then we are getting a second use out of it without using as much energy as you would need to make something new.

In Mullingar Educate together they reused tractor tyres for a new purpose to grow plants in. This means that the tractor tyres got to be used again after they were too old and worn for driving on. It also means that they didnt have to buy new pot plants so they saved energy !

The pictures below show how the rocky space used for the garden was transformed into a colourful display of plants.

The space that the school had for a garden was pretty rocky, so they decided to make raised beds from old tractor tyres.Doing it this way meant that students could work on the garden without walking in the soil, and the beds would warm up quicker, and drain better.
First they cut the sidewall out of the tyre which was hard work. Then they moved the tyre to the final location, and fill with stones, farm yard manure, and topsoil.

They planted and watered the plants and left them to grow using the energy of the sun.

Images from the recycled garden

Parent Anna Browne who helped the students and teachers to create this wonderful garden has her own weblog about gardening here: http://growyourownfood.blogspot.com/