Two Delta schools were recently awarded for their green efforts.

Port Guichon Elementary in Ladner was one of 10 elementary school winners announced earlier this month in the 2011 B.C. Green Games.

This year marked the third year for the B.C. Green Games, which is sponsored by Telus World of Science, B.C. Hydro and Terasen Gas.

"One of the most rewarding parts of organizing the B.C. Green Games is seeing how passionate and creative the students are," said Pauline Finn, Science World's vice-president of community engagement. "It doesn't matter what size a school is, or how remote their community is, we've had submissions and winners from all over the province with projects that are significant for their own community."

Students, with the help of their teachers, document their actions and measure changes in behavior of the community as a result of these actions.

The entry from Port Guichon outlined student and staff's extensive efforts to make the school more environmentally friendly.

Principal Grace Sproul said many of the ideas started out small with staff and teachers but grew as students got involved.

"We see the idea and nurture it and the children take it to the next level."

For example, last year the school encouraged students to bring litter-less lunches for a week. Everything that a student brought as part of their lunch had to be reusable, compostable or recyclable. One week turned into two, which turned into a month, and now, Sproul said, litter-less lunches are the norm at the school and have helped it cut its garbage output in half.

After learning to recycle paper, juice boxes and other drink containers, students decided they wanted to start recycling the used paper towel from the washrooms. They even brought a blue box into the washrooms specifically for the paper towels.

The school turns out the lights in classrooms during lunch to reduce energy consumption, and on Earth Day, April 22, the school will be participating in Lights Out Canada and using natural light for the whole day.

Green projects at the school also include garbage clean up in the community, worm composting and raising coho salmon. The Green Games entry won the school a $1,000 grant.

Delta Secondary automotive students were chosen as a Viewer's Choice winner for their one-of-a-kind electric drag racer.

Over the last couple years, many students, past and present, have had the opportunity to do something in the Ladner high school's auto shop that not even professionals are doing across the country. It's the only one of its kind in Canada.

"We are the only electric drag racing vehicle in Canada," said automotive teacher Casey Mynott, who initiated the project that's taken a regular vehicle with a blown engine and turned it into an environmentally friendly drag racer.

The vehicle being used is a 1989 Toyota pickup that was donated to the school. The truck is using a DC (direct current) motor, powered by a controller that regulates how much electricity the motor gets, which gets hooked up to the driveshaft and then to the truck's rear differential.

Mynott said although the project is complex and very peculiar, when looking under the hood of the truck, the mechanics are amazingly simple.

"I enjoy that students are totally blown away when you explain what it is, how it works, how simple it is ... like a combustion engine has a couple hundred parts, lots of things to go wrong. This has one. It has one moving shaft, that's it."

The award garnered the class $500 from the B.C. Green Games.