It’s almost Earth Day, and everyone has “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” on their minds. Here at the museum we try to make environmentally conscious choices not only during Earth Week, but all the time. We find that making small changes works the best, and is a great way to get kids involved. After all, we don’t care for the Earth just for ourselves—we do it for our children.

Below are a few small ways KidsQuest celebrates Earth Day every day:

Reduce

• In order to reduce energy consumption, KidsQuest was designed with automatic lights that turn off when a room is not in use.
• KidsQuest's WHOOSH! Exhibit is controlled by motion sensors, so that the exhibit is only powered when played with.
• Last year KidsQuest reduced plastic garbage bag use by more than 50% just by changing the way we handle our trash removal procedures.

What can you do?

Take the One Bag Challenge. Try to reduce your household’s weekly trash production to one bag by reusing and recycling. Get the whole family involved to increase your success!

Reuse

• One of KidsQuest's favorite ways to reuse is by taking non-recyclable items and creating one-of-a-kind pieces of sculptural art.
  

What can you do?

Make doll clothes out of old clothing. Use glue, tape, and your imagination to create new toys out of broken ones. Children are natural repurposers, and once you get started you’ll be amazed by what your family members can create.

Recycle

• Besides providing recycling bins around the museum to facilitate staff and visitor recycling, KidsQuest strives to use recycled products whenever possible.
• Little known fact: the floor in KidsQuest's WaterWays exhibit is made out of recycled tires!
• KidsQuest also uses recycled paper products in our restrooms.

What can you do?

Get your kids involved in the recycling process at home. They love to sort, so have them help you. Does your apple core go in the compost, garbage, or recycling bin? What about your juice box?

TRY IT!

Try this fun experiment to learn about what happens to trash!

Collect an assortment of items you might throw away. Here’s a sample list:

• Old sock                                              
• Banana peel
• Piece of newspaper                       
• Styrofoam meat tray
• Plastic disposable cup                   
• Aluminum can  

Place the items in a mesh bag (a “market bag” or the bag that onions come in will work). Bury the bag. Check on it after 1 week, 1 month, and even longer. What decomposed? What didn’t?  

Happy Earth Week! We hope you’ll be inspired to do something, big or small, to help inspire the next generation to care for our Earth today and every day!