Whiz Kid: Christopher Newberry, 11
School:
Accomplishment: Christopher was very impressed with President Obama's inagural speech and decided he wanted to be a part of creating change in his own school and community.
Christopher wrote a letter to his principal telling her about his idea for change; "I want to reduce the amount of trash or waste that is going into our landfills. I think this will help our environment because the landfills in our area are too full and some people are even dumping waste into the oceans."
My Goal: I want to reduce the amount of trash at my school so that less waste goes to the landfill.
My Plan: "Junk Mail" campaign.
I want to reduce the amount of “junk mail” or as my mom says, unsolicited mail that my school receives. I will measure the amount of “junk mail” that is sent to Nesbit for four weeks then I will tear off the mailing labels and send those back to the mailer with a note saying “please take us off your list”. I will re-measure the amount of “junk mail” after four weeks. This can help our environment in a lot of ways, for example; we will have less paper to throw away, the mailer will not waste paper and ink mailing my school a lot of copies of the same thing, no pollution for transporting something that is going straight into the trash.
The school principal gave Christopher permission to proceed with his experiment and the school secretary set up a special bin for collecting junk mail.
In just four weeks, Christopher had collected more than 200 pieces of junk mail that weighed in at more than 50 pounds! This was quite an accomplishment and was a big eye opener. Just imagine how much waste is produced in our city each month.
Key to Awesomeness: Christopher's key to awesomeness is his big heart. He truly cares about his school, his city and the world we all live in.
Know a whiz kid in Belmont? Send their information to laura.dudnick@patch.com.
