Shaler Area High School wins first in Fairchild Challenge at Phipps
Shaler Area High School students spent the entire 2017-18 school year competing in the Fairchild Challenge at Phipps and were awarded for their efforts with the top award.
The Shaler Area High School team placed first overall in the high school category in the yearlong environmental challenge that consisted of five different challenges. Students receive scores for each challenge and the scores are totaled for the overall winners. The students competed against more than 20 regional schools.
Shaler Area students won first place for Challenge #1 for which they created 10 original recipes called “Eco Edibles” that used all parts of the plant for the recipe creating little to no waste.
For Challenge #2, students researched the co-evolution of flowers and their pollinators and created a mixed-media poster depicting a fictional flower, its pollinator, and its habitat. Junior Emily Ehrenberger’s embroidered flower earned the third-place award and sophomore PJ Squire received a special merit award.
Shaler Area also placed first in Challenge #3: Environmental Design - "Eco Lots" thanks to students’ Emily Ehrenberger and PJ Squire who envisioned an area of the Pittsburgh Food Truck park in Millvale housing an eco-lot, or a community garden, that would allow for organic produce to be grown locally and a safe play area for children. Emily completed the writing and research portion and PJ drew the architectural sketch of the design idea.
For Challenge #4, students used fiction writing to create a story set in the present or future that draws attention to some environmental issue. Junior Evan Walsh wrote about deer and chronic wasting disease, and freshman Hannah Coleman wrote about beekeeping in rural Pennsylvania.
The final Challenge #5 Environmental Action was the largest and most involved challenge of the competition. Students created a calendar of environmental activities that took place over the course of the year including growing and planting seedlings for the Garden of Etna, teaching preschool classes about healthy eating, focusing on buying local with a CSA share and "Fresh Fruit Fridays," and hosting 4th grade GATE students for a bio-cube activity.
The high school students received $1,000 for their school as part of their first-place award.