Students at the Kuss, Morton and Talbot Middle Schools, as well as three New Bedford middle schools and the high school, learned about recycling and composting as participants in an after-school program held during the fall 2010 semester. The program was offered  by the LEADS (Leadership for Educational Attainment Developed through Service) project at UMass-Dartmouth. The students also learned about alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, and hydro power through a visit to Shy Brothers Farms in Westport, MA to learn how wind turbines are creating energy for the cheese farm. They then viewed, “No Impact Man,” a documentary on Dartmouth native Colin Beavan and his family who took action to make as little an environmental impact as possible for one year. LEADS students also learned about how they can reduce their own "carbon footprints"  and then engaged in a community service project to construct a webpage to create awareness of sustainable processes for the general public that featured facts, pictures and tips on how to reduce energy consumption. Students then created placemats and business cards with information about sustainability to help promote their webpage and distributed them at local restaurants. Click here to see photos of a LEADS hunger project at the Kuss Middle School, here for a school garden at Talbot Middle School and here for photos of LEADS student involvement in a neighborhood market survey. For more information about the LEADS project, contact Jarrad Plante at 508-496-9284. (Photos courtesy of Jarrad Plante)

(Top row, left and center) Students learn about the origins of various products and their carbon footprints while visiting the Ocean Explorium in downtown New Bedford. (Top row, right) Students learn how to create their own web page at the Talbot Middle School. (Middle row) Students listen as Barbara Hanley at Shy Brothers Farms in Westport explains how they use wind energy to make cheese. (Bottom row, left) Talbot students begin work on designing their webpage and their placemats. (Bottom row, center) Employees at Al Mac's Diner hold up some of the student-designed placemats that they will be using with their customers. (Bottom row, right) Customers at the Fall River House of Pizza enjoy looking at their placemats created by the LEADS students.