2019 Bay Students of the Year
360 High School’s Field Studies Program Students (2017-2018)
Through their weekly visits to Save The Bay as part of a Narragansett Bay Field Studies course, students at 360 High School in Providence were able to observe the impacts of plastics on the Bay and its marine life.
Their time in the field inspired them to tackle the issue of plastic water bottle use at school. After analyzing both environmental and economic costs, students researched alternative options to plastic water bottles and came up with the idea of installing a water bottle filling station at their school. To secure the $1,500 necessary for the filling station, students surveyed their schoolmates, prepared a petition and collected signatures. They held a mock town hall meeting at a school assembly, organized a blind taste-test experiment to demonstrate the comparable qualities of filtered and bottled water and presented their proposal to replace an outdated water fountain with a filling station.
Students were ultimately able to get funding for the station with help from the Rhode Island-based Greenlove
Foundation. A filling station was installed at the school in March 2019. Over 2,000 refills have already been recorded thus far!