Wyoming — Several fifth-graders worked outside on the Wyoming Intermediate School grounds, mapping out a plan for the following week’s Earth Day cleanup.
“We’ve been putting a sticker on where the pick-up and drop-off points for trash bins will be,” explained student Owen Morgan. “They will be all around the school — four zones with four trashcans.”
Their mission: organize a school-wide clean up of plastic and other trash, a task they had already started themselves as part of the cross-curricular project, “Leave No Trace.”
‘We’ve cleaned up the school a lot and now I feel like one person really could make a huge difference.’
— fifth-grader Ethan Reyes-Rivera
“I didn’t know how much trash there was that wasn’t supposed to be there and how much it hurt animals,” Owen said. “I really feel strongly about getting rid of plastic and paper that hurts animals.”
Inside, students worked on a multifaceted clean-up campaign, designing a TV ad, writing morning announcements, and creating digital and cardboard posters.
Preserve, Protect, Reduce
Teachers Johanna Wells and Kassie Daily challenged students to address the problem of plastic and its impact on Earth’s systems through the project, which integrates science, English Language Arts, math and social studies.
“Our big question is: How does plastic affect all of our Earth systems, land, water, air and living things?” said Wells. A follow-up question to that: “How can our school reduce its impact?”
Early in the unit, students did an initial cleanup, discovering plastic was the most common type of litter on their school grounds. They took pictures, gathered data and showed what areas of the school grounds had the most trash.
They also analyzed the ways all Earth systems are affected by plastic and wrote essays.
Fifth-grader Os Bitron said he’s concerned about his favorite animals, sea turtles, eating plastic bags, but that it’s a good feeling to be reducing plastic in the environment.
“It makes me feel more hopeful,” he said. “I like animals, and the fact that pollution is killing animals makes me sad. When we clean up pollution, it makes me happy because we are saving animals, and I don’t want them to be extinct.”
Wells said she’s noticed students are more aware of the presence of plastic everywhere.
“Even after spring break along the highways, they (said), ‘Oh my gosh, there was so much trash along the road!’” she said. “It’s something they are invested and involved in, and it’s their life, so their questions are really thoughtful and thorough.”
On Earth Day, the class led peers in the school-wide cleanup, gathering litter and discarding it to beautify the surroundings they play on every school day. Following the event, they counted the number of trash bags filled and weighed them, graphing their findings.
“I feel like I’m helping a lot, picking up the trash for the school,” said fifth-grader Milagros Vasquez. “I think about cleaning my house, cleaning the car, mostly about cleaning my own neighborhood.”
The project will culminate in May in a panel when students will present their findings to district administrators.
The ultimate goal, Wells said, is to begin a school recycling program. That’s something fifth-grader Ethan Reyes-Rivera could support.
“Before this unit whenever someone was like ‘clean the Earth,’ I was like, ‘How am I going to make a difference?’” Ethan said. “Well, we’ve cleaned up the school a lot and now I feel like one person really could make a huge difference.”
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