Sister O'Brien is a dual stream Saskatoon Catholic Elementary School with a population of 360 students from Kindergarten to Grade 8.  The Staff and students embarked on an evolving, school wide, year-round environmental project.  The name of the project is The Mikki Jacobson Viriditas Project.  Mikki Jacobson was the school's teacher-librarian and first environmental initiator before she passed away in 1999.  Viriditas is a word invented by Hildegard of Bingen, which means "the greening power of God".  This grassroots project has an environmental focus highlighting sustainable lifestyles.  The goal is to model a lifestyle for students, their families and the community, which is more sustainable and thus healthier for the environment.

    The Mikki Jacobson Viriditas Project grew out of an environment/sustainability unit in which four classrooms of grade 7 and 8 students researched various environmental concerns and sustainable living.  At the end of the unit, the leaders became aware that the students were much more empathetic when they had hands-on experiences with community resources and people who shared their sustainable lifestyles.  This is where the project was born.

    Since that first unit, the project has grown into a school-wide commitment.  The teachers organized the Viriditas Committee which incorporated a team approach.  Teachers, parents, community resource people, catalyst teachers and Board Office coordinators began to network with one another.  Each grade level teacher has a different focus, which integrates core science units with language arts, math fine arts, aboriginal education and outdoor/environmental education.  Hands on experiences are key to the student's learning.

    Staff, students and parents personalize the project by bringing their own ideas and focus to the school.  There have been projects including energy conservation "lights out" at recess and solar cooked hot lunch days hosted by two moms.  The community became involved at first by growing heritage seeds in their backyards and later by raising hundreds of Praying Manti, a bizarre looking insect used for biological pest control.  A Writer in Residence program was initiated and involved five classrooms.  Local author, Treena Kortje worked through the writing process for 7 weeks with the sustainable live them toward a culminating book launch of over 120 books.

    Every day the project grows and evolves.  New solar technologies are being developed and used in the school and community.  People have discovered that there are infinite applications of the sustainability model in school and daily life.

(Submitted by Sheila Gerwing, teacher at Sister O'Brien School)