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economist suntribune education saturday oct 19 2002 students plan greener planet york region students shine in program that sees teams come up with innovative environmental products by mitchell brown staff writer huggies for heifers any one the bovine nutrient management apparatus basically a nylon harness and bag attached to bessies business end is just one of the new products high- school students participat ing in the shad valley pro gram came up with this year a cow i think releases feces and urine 165 times a day said amanda chan 18 we had to research that the unionville student who worked with a team of students from across canada on the idea said her team leader got the idea from farmers near his home who complained about hav ing to constantly scoop up all the manure their cows produced farmers pay people to go around a field and shovel up the manure because it releases methane and causes soil and water pollution she explained but with this apparatus farmers can collect the manure with ease and ms chan said the bags pay for themselves within a year of course its not just farmers money her team is interested in saving if the idea catches on it could play a huge role in sav ing the environment the goal of all nine products on display thursday afternoon at the ontario science centre in toronto the products including an environmentally friendly toothbrush a moisturesen sitive sprinkler and a modi fied car exhaust system designed to eliminate 60 per cent of car pollution were conceived by students who attended shad valley a sum mer program designed to encourage exceptional youth to develop their engi neering and entrepreneur- ship skills this year 18 york region students were among the 180 students and nine teams who made the finals a ratio that impressed organizer linda wilson these students are from across canada and there are even some from overseas staff photosteve somerville newmarket native tandy briggs was part of a team representing lakehead university that created green teach an environ mental awareness teaching kit their work was dis played at the ontario science centre in toronto thursday she said which is why its so surprising to have so many from one area newmarket native tandy briggs 18 said it has been a great learning experience even though it was initially hard for her group to come up with an idea they did the environ ment as a theme four years ago and so a lot of the stuff we came up with had already been done she said we made a list of 150 ideas and everything was invented then we went back to the drawing board made another list of 100 and they were already invented eventually her group came up with greenteach a teaching kit designed to help grade 6 teachers incorpo rate environmental issues into their lesson plans she said it was an experi ence shell never forget in school you tend to work work work and you never get a reward for it she said your reward here is that you work with all these won derful people and you learn so much from them and they have a lot of fun while theyre working your reward here is that you work with all these wonderful people and you learn so much from them that certainly seemed the case with miranda fong 17 a richmond hill student who produced a promotion al video starring wirti the toiletdwelling alligator its his job to introduce flush more or less a sim ple device that allows a toilet user to reduce the amount of water in a flush the cost for the proto type is only about 17 ms fong said and while her teammates have no plans yet for marketing or patent ing the device im sure well do something useful with it jack pal president of shad international said the reason his organization brings the students together is to encourage young peo ple to explore their inventive and entrepreneurial sides not to mention give them a sense of self they get a sense of i can do it they get a sense of ability they get a sense of gee there are things i hadnt thought about but are really interesting to me to learn more about the program visit vmwsha6ca mitchell brown can be reached via email at mbrowntheliberalcom staff photossteve somerville amanda chan a unionville student was part of a team representing queens university who designed the bovine nutrient management appara tus a sack which collects waste from cattle miranda fong left a student at richmond hills st roberts catholic high school was part of a team which created flush an efficient toilet flush system it was part of shad internationals entrepreneurial competition on display at the ontario science centre how to weigh lose keepi i lost 348 lbs of body fat and feel great tina beninatocalleri age 46 occupation cmldcare specialist losing weight and keeping it off isnt a matter of starving for the rest of your life its about sensible nutrition mixed with sensible weekly exercise getting in shape staying in condition and enjoying the process can be as simple as being on the right program many of our members are 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