The REFUSE Project was a project centering around the idea that too many people just throw things away without a second thought. Through this project, we wanted to be able to educate people about what is going on with plastic pollution, how we are making it worse, and how we can help make it better. With this in mind people formed groups where they were able to each choose a different project. My group's project was to create a mural bringing awareness to marine debris. This semester we have decided to paint a mural that gave awareness to marine debris and how the ocean is being affected by our waste. Our mission is to encourage others to take action or at least spread awareness about the issue. Our plan for our project was to create a mural in a public space that was able to tell a strong story about a hard issue. We first created a moveable mural for the NOAA conference during March and were able to display and showcase it.We were able to get feedback on how we could improve our public mural. We as well involved ourselves in labs that helped us choose the best materials that were eco-friendly for example testing the differences of Low VOC paint from VOC paint. Our group was also involved in eco-week, we were able to discuss our project and the mural itself to other students that were interested. Further along in our project we couldn’t find a public space to paint in our designated area, but we were given access to paint on one of the school’s walls. In the duration of painting in a public place, we have noticed we have impacted our school community. Many students and visitors came up to us to ask us questions and compliment our painting. We have noticed we are making a change. Essential Question(s):
What are some properties of materials that make them useful, and what properties make them difficult or dangerous as waste products?
What impact do different waste products have on the world’s oceans, and how can we reduce that impact?
How do effective changemakers affect the world?
Final Reflection Excerpts:
"The REFUSE Project was a project that we were able to use as a creative outlet to create our own product related to the environment. When we heard what it was centering around that first day, we knew we wanted to use art to convey our feelings about the subject."
"Listening to all these people speak helped ignite the spark within my group and motivate us to want to help even more than before. We now not only wanted to do something involving art, but we wanted our art piece to be public and to bring awareness on the subject of marine debris."
"We found ways around obstacles we didn’t want to repeat, and found ways to ensure that we did the same things that we wanted repeated. This strategy ensured that our mural was successful and able to be completed in time for exhibition."
"Whether people get the intended message or not, this mural is impacting everyone around it. Everyone who sees our mural is intrigued and wants to learn more. I think that by creating something so public, where everyone in the school will see it everyday and feel the impact of it everyday, I don’t think we could have done a better job of getting our message across."