We are the Inventioneers, a First Lego League team. We have developed an environmental ecology program we call “Kids for Clean Oceans”. What began as a research project in September 2005, has led us to become champions for keeping trash – especially plastic - out of our oceans. “Kids for Clean Oceans” includes a public awareness program, an outreach campaign, and an educational program for children K-2.

We have worked with local and national ocean conservation groups including the Blue Ocean Society (BOS) in NH and the Algalita Marine Research Foundation in California. We wrote a newsletter article featured in the BOS’s summer newsletter, which receives wide distribution, and we have had enthusiastic encouragement for our efforts from the New England Aquarium, the NH Coastal Program, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

After discovering the dangers balloons pose to marine animals, the team decided to pursue passing a balloon release law in NH. We met with our state representative to advocate for the legislation, which will be taken up when the Legislature reconvenes in September 2006. Several conservation groups have offered to provide supportive testimony during committee hearings. It is amazing what we, as young people, can do when we are so fully dedicated to our cause.

The cornerstone of our public awareness campaign is our video public service announcement (PSA) called “Do It For Them” where we ask viewers to commit to picking up one piece of trash on the beach each year – and then request each viewer to ask two of their friends to do the same. As a team, we wrote, videotaped, and edited this piece ourselves. The PSA has been shown in many venues including pubic access TV, the FLL local and state tournaments, and homeschool groups. We have plans for wider distribution of our PSA going forward.

As part of our outreach plan, the Inventioneers produced and hosted an educational public access TV show to educate viewers on the dangers of plastic trash in the oceans and to introduce pre-produced environmental videos. We also prepared a skit highlighting the dangers of marine debris, which we performed at the FLL local and state tournaments and for fellow students.

Currently, two of our team members are teaching a class of sixteen K-2nd graders focusing on educating younger children about the harm plastic trash does in the environment and how land-based trash can get into rivers and oceans so easily. We are using a blended curriculum based on our own lesson plans and those from an EPA resource. We began in January 2006 with a presentation by the Blue Ocean Society director and are concluding the course on May 6th with a beach cleanup project.

We are a small group of dedicated, hard-working, young environmental advocates and we are committed to change the world and to educate the people around us.