Attention all middle school students! Are you interested in helping your advisory class win a fun and exciting party? Well, look no further as the Preuss School UC San Diego’s Ecology Club will be holding a composting competition in the school food court for all middle school advisory classes, which began on Monday, April 25th.

According to Ecology Club Vice President Yesenia Preciado (‘22), the composting competition will “help inform younger students about our composting program and offer an incentive for them to be involved in our program by contributing their food waste.”

The competition will last a total of three school weeks. Each week will be focused on a single middle school grade. The 6th-grade advisory classes are currently in the process of competing, with their competition expected to last from Monday, April 25th through Friday, April 29th. The seventh-grade advisory classes will be participating the following week from Monday, May 2nd through Friday, May 6th. Last, but certainly not least, the eighth-grade advisory classes will be the last to compete in this three-week competition from Monday, May 9th through Friday, May 13th. Every middle school advisory class is highly encouraged to participate in the competition.

All advisory classes will be assigned a colored set of buckets with their advisory teacher’s name on it, which must be filled up by the end of the week. Each advisory class is responsible for filling up their buckets. The Ecology Club will be accepting food scraps found at school and home. Before filling up the buckets, students must also ensure they completely remove the wrappers from each food scrap to increase their chance of winning. Preuss teachers can also contribute to the competition by filling the bucket of their choice.

By the end of the week, the Ecology Club will weigh each advisory classes’ composting buckets. The advisory class with the heaviest bucket will win the ultimate prize, a breakfast party! Winning advisory classes from each grade will be celebrating their breakfast party in the morning. The 6th-grade winning advisory class will be celebrating their breakfast party next Wednesday, May 4th during block 1.

In the past, Ecology Club has made school-wide efforts to promote their newly established composting program.

On February 26th, the club launched the composting program through a kick-off event. The club welcomed all high school students to volunteer their time to help the club prepare for the composting program. Volunteers were responsible for helping the Ecology club build a shed and set up wheelbarrows.

The club has also set small, white buckets near the school’s food court where Preuss students from all grades can dispose of their food scraps, which will then be used for the composting program.

Overall, the Ecology club sets out to bring Preuss students together and promote a greener environment on campus.

“Our principles would most likely be to try your best to reduce your environmental impact as individuals,” added Ecology Club Vice President Yesenia Preciado (‘22).

If middle school students want to get involved with the Ecology club, they can continue contributing to the composting program by throwing away their food waste into the club’s white buckets. Students can also enlist in AP Environmental Science in the 12th grade, where they will learn more about the importance of environmental action.