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The Graeme Greenies are the first year environment group at Graeme High School. During term time we meet every Monday lunchtime, in Hut 2, to discuss environmental issues that concern us and what we can do about them. Our overall aim is to learn and understand our local surroundings, development an awareness of the environment and have lots of fun.
 Current Members Mhairi Baird, Mark Carlin, Jayne Cunningham, Suzy Killin, Emma McCallum, Fiona McLeay, Sarah Moyes, Scott Smith, Amy Forsyth, Heather Easton, Stuart Fraser, Elaine Gallagher, Lourinda Richards, Sam Hannah, Charlene Cochrane, Ms Carroll.
Anyone interested in joining is very welcome. In order to support the School Christmas Fayre we decided to make bird feeding boxes from old milk cartons and sell them. We asked friends, parents and members of staff to donate their milk cartons and we then spent every lunchtime, for three weeks, painting, decorating and assembling the boxes. We made some ‘camoflague’ style - painted dark green with seasonal leaves glued on, some ‘Christmas’ style - silver foil and tinsel, and some ‘loud’ style - bright, glarey colours. Into each we placed a small bag of bird seed. On the day of the Fayre we successfully sold all the bird feeders and raised £28 for school funds.
We are continuing with the collection, with cans now going to Scottish Conservation Projects Trust. The money raised through this scheme will hopefully be used to sponsor some animals at Palacerigg Country Park (see later).
Paper Recycling Vast quantities of waste paper are generated in school. In February 1999 the recycling paper scheme with Scottish Conservation Projects Trust was re-established. This conservation organisation supply us with blue bags which are then distributed amongst willing teachers. Every two weeks bags filled with waste paper are returned to Hut 2. Keen pupils then 'neatly' fling the bags over the school railings, ready for roadside collection.
The system has worked well so far with many teachers using the blue bags as a prompt to clear out cupboardfuls of old jotters ! All paper except “Yellow Pages” and glued/gummed paper can be recycled. Unfortunately, some people (no names) cannot tell the difference between paper and plastic !
Litter Pick Up
 Before starting the litter collection in Callendar Park we had the opportunity to meet Alex Totten, Manager of Falkirk F.C. and he very kindly signed our bibs for us. We than set off to walk the course of the run, picking litter as we went. The spot where we had most to collect was at the first watering station as runners had simply thrown their drinks cups on the ground. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived at the second watering station everyone else had left and all the cups had already been collected! Many of us found conditions hard going - too long and too hot - what would we have been like if we had ran the race!!!. Excursions
Hopetoun House  The Graeme Greenies first trip was to the grounds of Hopetoun House, near South Queensferry. On arriving we met the Head Ranger, Tom who made us play some really silly games, imitating different animals but it was great fun and allowed us all to get to know each other and Tom. We then set off on a nature trail around the grounds and down onto the shore. Here we had great fun squelching around in knee high seaweed, although it didn’t smell that great!
Probably the most interesting thing that we heard, and learned about, was how a stoat catches, bites the neck and kills a rabbit. The noise was a bit spooky! We found and identified hoof prints of red deer and were able to tell that they were having a difficult time braking in the muddy conditions. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we were able to have a picnic lunch before completing an “against the clock” nature trail/orienteering exercise. The winning team however were not terribly impressed with their prize - nature’s Maltisers i.e. sheep droppings ! On Saturday 6 February the Graeme Greenies went on a trip to Deep Sea World, North Queensferry. On arriving the first thing we did was go to the ‘touch and feel’ pool where we got to handle spider crabs and velvet crabs. We then moved through to the tropical rainforest area where we saw piranhas and beautiful blue, but poisonous, frogs. We were also able to give each other electric shocks using the static ball. We then moved down into the tunnel were we saw many species of fish including the main attraction - the sharks. The largest of the sharks was Stella. Two divers were swimming with the fish, feeding them and also scrubbing clean the glass walls of the tunnel. We were able to communicate with the divers as they had microphones attached to their regulator mouthpieces. They answered many of our questions, not all of which were about the fish!
After lunch we spent some time in the classroom with the Education Officer. She gave a very interesting talk on the Water Cycle and demonstrated the principles of evaporation and condensation using a plastic fish tank, sugar crystals and cling film. Unfortunately, we ran out of time but hopefully we will get the opportunity to return soon.  (Special thanks to Frank McKeever, B.P. - as a B.P. Link School we were able to get 50% discount on our entry price. Also thanks to the Education Officer as she gave us all passes for a return visit, entitling us to free child entry when accompanied by an adult).
Palacerigg Country Park
On Sunday 21 March we went on a ‘Feeding Frenzy’ excursion to Palacerigg - the largest forest sanctuary in Central Scotland. On arriving we split into three groups - ‘Stables group’, ‘Carnivore group’ and ‘Field group’. Scott, Mark, Stuart and Ms Carroll went to the stable block along with the Animal Attendant Susan. Our job was to muck out two of the stables. At first we were not particularly impressed with our given task but Susan soon showed us what to do and we had no choice but to get ‘dug in’. Loulou and Monty, the two occupants of the stables came galloping across the field soon after we had started and it was interesting to find out the differences between the hardy native horses (hairy with no blanket) and the more delicate Arab horses which are given cozy blankets to wear over the winter period.
The first job was cleaning out the manure and the soiled straw. This had to be wheelbarrowed to the huge manure heap. Buckets of water had to be freshened up and the hay nets filled. We learned the difference between hay and straw - hay is dried grass (used for food) while straw is the cut stems of barley (used for bedding). We then had to put new bedding down, taking care to build ‘walls’ around the stable. These ‘walls’ are needed by the horse to push itself up against if it lies on its side. Once finished our chores Susan rewarded us all with a horseshoe. We were also allowed to collect some manure to use for the school garden - Ms Carroll sank rather deep into the manure heap while collecting it and we had to travel back to school with very smelly bags in the mini bus. The Carnivore Group Fiona, Sarah, Emma and Jayne went along with Elaine to the store room to collect the food for the carnivores - dead, male day-old chicks. (Male chicks are killed while female chicks are raised to lay eggs). The carnivorous animals at the park include mink, pine martins, ferrets and owls and we had to place food in their cages. We were not allowed into the lynx enclosure as this is quite a fierce animal so the Animal Attendant fed it its diet of chickens and lamb legs. We also had to collect some carcasses and bones from previous meals. The Field Group Charlene, Heather, Amy and Mhairi were driven along a very bumpy track by the Head Ranger, Helen. Their job was help with the feeding of the animals in the outlying fields. The first animals to be given their feed of what looked like ‘pellets and cornflakes’ were the fallow and red deer. After this the Highland cattle, sheep and reindeer were fed. Only one person at a time was allowed to feed the reindeer and Charlene was lucky enough to mix the ‘maggot-like’ feed with her bare hands. The reindeer were called Holly and Dancer - there used to be one called Rudolf but he died last year. Helen told us that the reindeer can be aged by the number of branches on their antlers. During the mating season the velvet comes off the antlers and no-one enters the enclosure at this time of year as it is too dangerous. She also told us that male and female cattle have horns which point in different directions - the females’ horns point upwards while the males’ horns point forwards. We then fed the Przewalskis horses. These are a very wild and endangered species, native to Mongolia. They look more like donkeys but, due to their unpredictable behaviour, we were not allowed to feed them. On returning to the main building, again along the very bumpy track, we saw hens in their roost. We found out that they sometimes eat meat and when ready to lay eggs they ‘cluck’ really loudly. Once all groups had finished their chores we reassembled at the Visitors Centre and then went to one of the long houses for our lunch. After we had eaten it was time to see the wolves have their meal - delicious, blood-drenched cattle legs! The wolves are Canadian timber wolves and all brothers so there is not much chance of them producing a litter! We saw pack behaviour being displayed with the dominant brother ‘controlling’ the movements of the others. As one of the wolves was poorly it was being given food treated with antibiotics but the Animal Attendants thought that the wolf had grown ‘wise’ to this and could now taste the medicine as it picked the meat up but would not eat it. Again the day was too short and we had to leave. It is however hoped that we will return on a regular basis to Palacerigg, get to know more about the animals, and hopefully raise money in order to sponsor some of them. |
Up until February 1999 Blue Peter were running an appeal for aluminium cans to raise money for the building of schools in Africa. In our school we tried to encourage pupils to recycle their drinks cans and place them either in the large bin in Hut 2 or in the dedicated bags many teachers had placed in their classrooms. Although we collected 3 large sackfuls for the Blue Peter Appeal pupils still throw their cans into the bin or, worse still, on the ground!
