GreenToronto hosted an Eco-Makerspace Workshop on sustainability on June 17, 2023, at the Granite Club.18 participants, ranging from Grades 4-8, learned the significance of the economic and environmental pillars of sustainability through hands-on crafts.

The founder of GreenToronto, Andy Song, started the workshop with a presentation on sustainability. The participants were then divided into six groups and were introduced to 2 different challenges. The first activity was called the “Marshmallow Challenge.” Each group was given 20 spaghetti sticks, a marshmallow and some tape. The challenge was to build a tower as high as possible while holding up the weight of the marshmallow on its own without support. The second challenge was building a bird feeder with used plastic bottles and disposable spoons.

These two activities introduced the concept of reuse, reduce, and recycle and helped the participants develop a sense of protecting our environment and community. The GreenToronto team, which consists of Andy Song, Sophie Li-Fikree, Oliver Zhu, and Mary Mei, helped facilitate the activities and aided the participants with their crafts. All the participants and their parents are very excited about the program and the next workshop.