Team Members:

1. Team Members: Victoria Cardenas, Zane Kaiser, Violet Kamber, Helen King, Amber Lindsey, Neil Makwana, Michael Martinez, Alisha Shah, Jinal Shah, Prachi Shah Teacher Sponsor: Mr. Phil Church Bartlett High School Bartlett, IL Mothernaturesminions.com mothernaturesminions@gmail.com Mothernaturesminions.wikispaces.com Final Challenge 2011-2012!

2. The environmental issue Everyday all around our school, plastic is being thrown in to garbage bins as opposed to being recycled. Most plastic is created by using both natural gas and oil, both of which are fossil fuels and can never be created again. When fossil fuels are burned, harmful pollutants are released in to the air. These pollutants could possibly deplete our precious ozone layer or add to the greenhouse effect already threatening our environment. Our team chose to work with a free recycling program called TerraCycle. The beauty of this program is that it provides incentives to get organizations to recycle and also allows organizations to recycle hard-to-recycle like juice pouches, chip bags, and ink jet cartridges. The Mother Nature’s Minions chose this topic because not only is it easy for schools to enroll in but it also allows our team to measure our success easily. Our team will address the serious lack of recycling in our local schools, buisness, and organization’s cafeterias.

3. The environmental issue Let’s take a look at your average ten pouch Capri Sun® box and the materials used in it… • 290 square inches of cardboard (give or take a few modifications) • 10 juice pouches which contain as follows: • 24% Paper • 70% Polyethylene • 6% Aluminum Foil Fortunately, all the cardboard can be recycled but astonishingly the juice pouches can’t. The polyethylene used in the juice pouches can not be recycled through most people’s household recycling collection. TerraCycle allows schools, organizations, and businesses to collect hard-to-recycle materials like juice pouches! By getting local businesses, organizations and mostly schools to start this program, our Eco Challenge team is working to reduce the amount of trash that could technically be recycled if you are willing to put in a little bit of extra work!

4. The action plan • The first step our team took was to establish a goal. Our team hoped to raise over 5,000 TerraCycle points. Points are assigned by TerraCycle according to the volume of trash collected. • The next step was to spread the word. We hoped to add more schools to our cause and also get our home school, Bartlett High School, even more involved. Our team worked in creating letters, design proposals, posters, collection bins, videos, Facebook pages, and information. • Next, we worked on collecting TerraCycle trash. In order to reach our goal, we had to put up collections in places that the Minion’s felt would collect the most trash. Our team placed bins in the hallways of our school, cafeterias of other schools and businesses, and also in teacher offices. • The next step was to count the trash. In order to get an idea of how many points were raised we had to go through the tedious process of counting various TerraCycle trash products such as chip bags, candy wrappers, juice pouches, ink cartridges, etc. • Finally, we worked on establishing a permanent TerraCycle program at Bartlett High School, our team hoped to provide a base that would keep this program flourishing forever at Bartlett High School!

5. Team member responsibilities • Victoria Cardenas: Team Leader, delegated and kept us on track the whole entire time • Michael Martinez: Head of Website creation, Head of Class room informational presentations • Zane Kaiser: Head of Video production and creation • Helen King: In charge of setting up Brigades and picking what trash to send in • PrachiShah: Head of Bin Creation • Violet Kamber: Lead photographer • Alisha Shah: In charge of updating progress thermometer • Amber Lindsey: Trash collector and lead counter • JinalShah: Head of promoting Mother Nature’s Minions • Neil Makwana: Leader in Facebook promotions

6. Measuring success & quantifying impact • Facebook Likes… Mother Nature’s Minions currently has 362 followers on Facebook and growing. With followers that live in places as far away as New York and Nebraska and it is clear Mother Nature’s Minions has no limitations to who can be informed. • Video Views… The Mother Nature’s Minions video we posted currently has 358 views. • Schools we informed… Mother Nature’s Minions informed over 40 elementary, middle and high schools about our program. • Businesses that opted to participate… We were able to obtain 6 businesses that wanted to participate in our program. Some of these businesses included Ecolab Elk Grove, A Cut Above Hair Salon, Bargain Techs. Inc., and Phoenix Intl. • Amount of items we collected… Mother Nature’s Minions was able to collect around 2,400 pieces of our specified trash. With a goal of 5,000 TerraCycle points we are not stopping there. Our team quantified impact mostly by just completing our goal of 5,000 TerraCycle points. In order to get to this high number of points, we needed to get the word out about our program through creating a Facebook fan page, website and video!

7. What our team did In total, our team collected over 2,400 TerraCycle items. TerraCycle has a way of classifying points once you register with them online and fortunately our team raised enough items to rack up an astonishing 8,500points! Not only did our team reach our goal we almost doubled it! Spring Trail Elementary School, whom which the Minion’s have been working with the most also received an awesome presentation from Michael and Victoria! Michael and Victoria went to Spring Trail and presented all about their Eco Challenge team to over 445 elementary school students varying in age from 5 to 12! Our team was so lucky in the sense that we got to work with over 45 schools in our school district, most of our team learned more about what it takes to achieve a goal but also how to write professional letters and communicate properly with adults. Our team thought that this time around, competing in the Final Challenge it would be vital to get the word out about our team. We made a new and improved website, Facebook page, and YouTube video!

8. Our Plan’s Success • Our action plan was very successful in the sense that we were able to meet our goal of collecting over 5,000 TerraCycle points! We were also successful in adding a new elementary school in to the TerraCycle program and getting another school to promise to start in time for the next school year! • Our team faced most of the same problems that we faced the first time. The most common problem we faced was the fact that most elementary schools chose to disregard our letters and emails to a point that we never received any word if they actually received our letters. Our team also had difficulties handling some of the high amounts of trash that would arrive for the Minions! Counting all the trash was sometimes downright nasty but if you can help the environment by separating a few juice pouches then it was definitely worth it.

9. Raising awareness • At Bartlett High School, we created a sort of TerraCycle hot spot. We had our TerraCycle thermometer, which tracked how many points we had earned, two TerraCycle trash bins, and posters that informed students about our team and its goals. We presented to all of the freshmen Bartlett High School Academy in order to provide them with information on how to use the TerraCycle bins and what our goals were. • As stated before, we were able to collect over 2,400 pieces of trash which accounted for approximately 8,500 points! We also informed over 800 people about our project. We presented to over 450 people at Spring Trail Elementary, 90 BHS Academy Freshmen, 180 people at Ecolab’s February plant meeting, 40 administrators throughout our district, and 40 teachers in our school! That means our Lexus Eco Challenge group got the word out to over 800 people in our local community. • Our team definitely learned a lot about responsibility, every member was in charge of certain slides in our Action Plan, showing up to our team meetings, and assisting in collecting TerraCycle trash. Our team also learned a lot about communication because we interacted with so many people, administrators, students, and teachers.

10. How we would use our prize money Jinal Shah: If we win the Lexus Eco Challenge, I would use the money to help contribute to my college funds. I want to make a difference in the field of engineering and I would use the money to get the proper education to do so. Micheal Martinez: With my prize money I would save it for my future education. School is my number one priority and it would mean so much to me if I had money put away before hand to pay for school. My dream is to get into the University of Chicago and any amount of money would be great. Prachi Shah: I would save up my prize money for college. I want to get into the Honors Dental Program at IUPUI because I want to be an orthodontist like my big sister. Violet Kamber: I would use my prize money to enroll in Summer camps and Leadership Conferences. In addition, any money I have left over would be saved for college. I an hoping to attend Northwestern University or U of I. Neil Makwana: What I am planning to do for the Eco Challenge prize money is to save it for a college that will enable me to go into an engineering career. The college that I prefer as of right is Princeton University, NJ. Alisha Shah: With my prize money I would put it toward my college fund like last time. Since I was little, it was my dream to become a Pediatrician and help those around me. The Prize money will help me reach my goal. Victoria Cardenas: I would put my price money towards my college fund. I hope to go to Stanford University in California to study either biomedical engineering or oncology. Helen King: I would use my money towards college and a car, so I can help my parents save money. For college I would use the money to pay for any needed tuition and books. Amber Lindsey: If we were to win the money I would split it up. One thing I would use it for is helping my mom, since she does so much for me. Also I would put the money towards my car and college fund. Also just start saving money for the future. Zane Kaiser: If I were to get the prize money, I would put it towards my college education for biomedical engineering. I want to go to John Hopkins University of Engineering. I have heard and read a lot about their program and it is my dream school.

11. The minions go viral! Our Facebook page got over 360 likes! Visit us at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mother-Natures-Minions/329743587068608 With over 350 views, you sure don’t want to miss out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmoqMQWWsfw

12. Project gallery We held the majority of our meetings in our Teacher Sponsor’s, Mr. Church, classroom. You can see some pictures to the left. Pictured also were some of the bins we used to collect TerraCycle trash!

13. Minions have a blast while saving the environment!