Posted on Nov. 7: McMaster’s MacShad students claim top environmental prize

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BY Chantall Van Raay

November 7, 2002

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/MacShad_Marvin.gif” caption=”Marvin’s Tree”]Sometimes the simplest message has the greatest impact on the environment.

It can also have the biggest reward.

Students of McMaster's Shad Valley program, known locally as MacShad, received the best overall award from the RBC Shad Entrepreneurship Competition for the “Big Green Tree Planting Kit”, which includes Marvin's Tree, a story about a bird who searches for a new home after his tree is destroyed.

“We're really proud of winning this award,” says Bob Loree. “It really says a lot for McMaster and the faculty, staff and students that we have here.”

The 52 students who came to McMaster in July for the Shad program were instructed to create a project that would benefit the environment. Divided into four groups, the students were given four weeks to design, build, market, and present a product or service to a panel of judges. The Big Green Tree Planting Kit was selected for entrance into the fifth annual RBC competition.

This is the second time McMaster has claimed the top prize. They also won first place for prototype and third for the business plan.

The kit includes five tulip tree seeds per student that they plant to help re-establish this endangered species. Also included in the kit is a teacher's reference guide, three compact discs, 25 planting pots and a colored children's storybook of Marvin, that the students translated in several languages, including English, French, Ukrainian and Mandarin. The team also created a Web site, which people could submit their address to, to be mailed tree seeds native to their area.

The kit has caught the eye of local school boards who are considering purchasing the books for Grade 3 teachers, notes Loree.

“The Shad experience in itself is fantastic,” he says. “With or without the reward, students were able to go home and say they had a great experience and a lot of fun. The skills they learn here are really invaluable.”

Photo caption: One of the pages from Marvin's Tree, the colored children's storybook that has been translated by students into several languages, such as French, Mandarin and Ukrainian.