RE Log Fall 2019

30 Ransom Everglades LOG FALL 2019 Unprecedented sustainability efforts at Ransom Everglades Middle School propelled Ransom Everglades to third place in the annual Green Schools Challenge and helped science faculty member Kelly Jackson land an Innovation in Education Award at the 2019 Dream in Green Awards Ceremony. The awards recognized myriad successes in 2018-19 on RE’s Everglades Campus, including the RE Energy and Climate Change Symposium; the installation of solar panels; and the launch of a composting program. “At last night’s awards ceremony for the Green Schools Challenge, Ransom Everglades Middle School was recognized for an extraordinary achievement,” said Gus Palacios, the Middle School Science Department Coordinator a day after the May 30, 2019, recognition. “This was the result of a tremendous effort on the part of Dr. Kelly Jackson and several other members of the middle school faculty. We are very proud.” Jackson and fellow faculty and sustainability task force members Brooke Gintert and Alexandra Gunner accepted the honor on the school’s behalf at the event in downtown Miami. On Campus Going Green RE recognized for efforts advancing sustainability on its Everglades Campus The culmination of a year of new initiatives and progress was the school’s third-annual RE Energy and Climate Change Symposium, which took place over four days in May and brought in political leaders, sustainability experts and environmental activists for informative talks and also offered the first-ever Student Research Showcase. Students undertook projects related to climate change, energy or sustainability in their science classes and, in some cases, also in their math, visual art, world cultures and geography, and computer science courses, making the event a true interdisciplinary showcase. Featured speakers included Ron Magill, an Emmy-winning wildlife expert and communications director at Zoo Miami; Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier L. Suarez; Yanira Pineda, Sustainability Specialist for the City of Miami Beach; Delaney Reynolds, the teen founder of the Sink or Swim Project; and Caroline Lewis, the founder of The Climate Leadership Engagement Opportunities (CLEO) Institute. The symposium closed with the Student Research Showcase, where every sixth- and seventh-grade student, 316 in all, presented research projects. In March during spring break, the first-ever solar panels were installed at Ransom Everglades, with 18 panels placed atop the Hogan Building. The panels can generate 5.2 kilowatts of electric power, offsetting a small amount of the campus’s power consumption daily while also serving as a learning tool in RE’s science classrooms. Ransom Everglades also launched its first-ever composting program at the RE Middle School on April 22 – Earth Emma Perdigon ’25