
In
conjunction
with
professor
Dr.
Cindy
Smith
from
George
Mason
University,
three
PWCS
students
participated
in
the
Mid-Atlantic
Marine
Debris
Summit
and
gave
a
presentation
titled,
"A
Community
Approach
to
Reducing
Single-Use
Plastic
Beverage
Bottles
in
two
PWCS
High
Schools,"
to
an
audience
of
veteran
researchers
and
advocacy
specialists
in
a
virtual
conference
sponsored
by
the
National
Oceanic
and
Atmospheric
Administration
(NOAA).
Ashley
Munoz-Trujillo
and
Stephanie
Ruiz
Molina,
both
senior
students
at
Freedom
High
School,
and
Elizabeth
Short,
a
senior
student
at
Patriot
High
School,
fielded
questions
about
their
experience
creating
social
media
campaigns
and
what
they
have
found
are
the
best
ways
to
connect
with
today's
youth
on
being
a
responsible
environmental
citizen.
On
presenting
to
experts
in
the
environmental
field,
Munoz-Trujillo
stated,
"I
was
extremely
nervous
presenting
as
it
was
the
largest
audience
I've
ever
spoken
in
front
of.
With
the
support
of
my
teacher
and
friends,
it
went
over
smoothly.
[Through
this
experience]
I
learned
so
much
and
overall
enjoyed
the
experience.
Hearing
what
others
[in
the
field]
are
doing
was
also
very
inspiring."
All
three
students
are
participants
in
a
two-year
project
that
plays
an
important
role
in
conducting
research
and
relaying
their
findings
to
their
peers.
As
part
of
the
first
year
of
the
project,
Molina,
Munoz-Trujillo,
and
Short
worked
on
collecting
data,
creating
social
media
campaigns,
and
discovering
barriers
to
the
call
to
reduce
the
use
of
single-use
plastic
bottles.
The
presentation
was
on
the
students'
community
approach
toward
reducing
single-use
plastic
beverage
bottles
in
both
Freedom
and
Patriot
High
Schools.
They
served
as
both
presenters
and
panelists,
sharing
what
their
experiences
have
been
thus
far
with
the
project.
One
of
their
findings
from
their
data
collection
was
that
between
the
two
high
schools,
more
than
10,000
single-use
plastic
water
bottles
were
used
per
week.
The
three
seniors
devised
an
approach
on
how
to
use
social
media
to
call
their
peers
to
action
to
reduce
their
plastic
water
bottle
use.
Dr.
Jessica
Doiron,
CENS
coordinator
at
Freedom
High
School
stated,
"The
students
observed
which
platforms
of
social
media
were used
the
most
by
their
peers,
and
determined
that
TikTok,
Twitter,
and
Instagram
were
the
three
most
popular
platforms.
They
created TikToks encouraging
students
to
use reusable
water
bottles
and
shared
Twitter
and
Instagram
posts
demonstrating
the
importance
of
reducing
the
use
of
single
use
plastic
bottles
and
recycling."
At
Freedom
High,
students
have
the
opportunity
to
apply
to
the
Center
for
Environmental
and
Natural
Sciences
(CENS),
a
specialty
program
unique
to
the
school.
CENS
is
a
rigorous
four-year
program
designed
to
include
strong
laboratory
and
field
investigation
components.
The
mission
of
CENS
is
to
promote
environmental
citizenship
through
challenging
hands-on
collaborative
experiences,
and
these
three
students
have
embraced
that
through
their
collaborative
efforts
with
NOAA.