After seeing the Lassonde buildings, Grade 5 students at École Saint-André-Apôtre decided to transform their own classroom based on green building concepts.
The students first discovered the Lassonde buildings as part of a social sciences project on buildings. Their research and subsequent visit to the Lassonde buildings with the Folie Technique team last March convinced them that they, too, could make their classroom more environmentally friendly and a nicer place to be.

Assisted by their teacher, Johanne Teasdale, and advised by two members of Folie Technique, Thanh-Thuy Vo Thang and Raphaël Micone, the students considered their interaction with the environment. They then established their needs and came up with sustainable solutions.

The students' parents, actively involved from the start, were a great help in completing the project. With the application of environmentally friendly paint (in the same colour scheme as the Lassonde building!) to the walls and furnishings, the installation of new blinds, the rearrangement of the classroom, the posting of students' poems about the environment, and the addition of plants, the classroom was entirely transformed, much to the students' pride.

According to Ms. Teasdale, the project allowed students to have an impact on their environment--something, she said, that was "certain to have beneficial effects."
A thank-you evening was organized on June 8 to point up the engagement of all those who took part. And, according to the Folie Technique representatives on hand, the results are highly impressive!

 
The classroom before...

...and after!

Ms. Teasdale's young eco-entrepreneurs