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Schools in the News
Inside the Capitol, The Great Outdoors
Stewards of their own backyard
Students groom East Lampeter Township stream
Cleaning Up litter, molding beautiful minds
Backyard Classroom
Life lessons in compost
________________________________________________________________
Inside the Capitol, The Great Outdoors 
Washington Post April 17, 2008
By Moira E. McLaughlin
It's not uncommon to see fifth-graders touring Capitol Hill. What was unusual yesterday is that sharing the experience with the class from South Shore Elementary were an alligator, a flamingo, an armadillo, two clouded leopard cubs and two terrapins.
They were at the U.S. Capitol to support a bill called No Child Left Inside that would create a $500 million environmental education program to get kids out of the classroom and into nature.
"How can we learn by being inside?" asked Kristi Bridgwater, a student at the Crownsville, Maryland, school. "Sitting in front of a computer is not enough."
As Kristi listened to the measure's sponsors, Zachary Bell and Faye Barrett held Pebbles and Steve, the class terrapins.
The kids have been studying terrapins all year. At the start, Pebbles and Steve were the size of quarters. Later this month they will be released into the wild, where young terrapins often struggle to survive.
"We're jump-starting them," Zachary said.
Faye said she would like to write a book about terrapins.
Because of their project, Kayla Smith said that when she and her classmates grow up, they will be more aware of the environment.
Stewards of their own backyard
Lancaster Intelligencer Sunday News, April 20, 2008
By Jon Rutter
Country Day students at work here to help clean up the bay
Berkley Crain and Danielle Lukens and their classmates at Lancaster Country Day School are creating micro forests that will help cleanse the waters of the Chesapeake Bay.
That's a good news story for Earth Day number 38, Tuesday, April 22.
The sobering sidebar: It's going to take the streamside buffers planted by the students a long time to make much of an impact.
The bay is still starved for dissolved oxygen, choked with algae and clogged brown with mud, chemicals and nutrients from the 100,000 streams that vein its rapidly developing, 64,000-square-mile watershed.
Conservationists say government is far behind on its schedule to release millions of dollars and turn the problems around by the target date of 2010.
Jumping into the breach are citizen environmental groups like the Little Conestoga Watershed Alliance, for which Lukens and Crain volunteer.
Todd Trout, the girls' chemistry teacher at Country Day, helps direct the nonprofit alliance.
Trout joined the group shortly after it started up in 2000, and ever since has enlisted students to help plant riparian buffers. Now, he said, kids provide much of the motive power.
Their time-proven modus operandi: educating other students and the public, stabilizing stream banks and putting in greenery that blots up pollution before it ever reaches the water.
According to Trout, they've planted thousands of trees and shrubs.
They collaborate frequently with students from other schools, the Lancaster County Conservation District and the county Water Quality Volunteer Coalition, which is conducting a long-term water quality testing program.
They've partnered with Lancaster General Hospital, the Lancaster County Conservancy, Rettew Associates and Exelon Corp., among other supporters and sponsors.
They learn as they go.
Crain, of Lititz, and Lukens, of Berks County, are monitoring the mortality rate of the young trees they helped plant at Jacob's Creek Park, off Sylvan Road in Manheim Township.
The 17-year-old senior girls say they might return one day to stroll through a mature grove bisected by pristine waters.
It might take a generation or two to realize that image.
"This is a way for students to see science outside the classroom," Trout said.
It won't immediately heal the bay's "massive problem," he added. "But if you try to take care of your own backyard ..."
Call to arms
The bay drains parts of six states, including Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland and New York.
In Lancaster County, according to conservation district watershed specialist Matt Kofroth, 12 to 15 citizen groups are tackling the cleanup one stream at a time.
Most of them are working with a school district in some way. "From Manheim Central to Warwick to Solanco," he said, "everybody seems to be getting involved. ... It's great."
Trout's group has zeroed in on the Little Conestoga and its tributaries.
And it kicked off the 2008 season with an Earth Day tree planting Saturday along Bachman Run, near Fruitville Pike and Koser Road in Manheim Township.
Launched with the help of an $11,000 Growing Greener grant, the alliance installed its first buffer zone in March 2001, near the Maple Grove Community Center in Lancaster Township.
The group has since completed streamside improvement projects along Swarr Run and Stauffer Run, among others.
A year ago, about 50 people — half of them students — put in 400 silky dogwoods, river birch and other plants at the Jacob's Creek site.
Scores of volunteers went back last September to purge the ground of purple loosestrife and other invasive plant species.
On a recent visit to the subdivision-ringed park, cattails waggled in the wind. The clear waters of the tributary gurgled toward their junction with the Little Conestoga, bound ultimately for the Susquehanna and the Chesapeake.
Lukens and Crain jotted notes on their clipboards as they walked through the forest of plastic tubes that protects the young trees from deer and mowing machines.
The girls, who intend to pursue environmental studies in college, will graduate this spring. But Lukens said they'll pass along the plant mortality data they collect to the students who come after.
As student liaisons to the alliance, the pair has toiled alongside everyone from middle school kids to senior citizens and recruited countless peers to help plant and maintain trees.
They say their classmates have gladly signed up to muscle shovels into the earth and lug a small ocean of tree irrigation water.
According to their teacher, a mindset is blooming, along with the system of buffers.
"I think the culture of our school buys into this," Trout said. "In the sense that there's a call to arms we get a great response."
Students groom East Lampeter Township stream
Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, April 23, 2008
By Madelyn Pennino
Preparing area for outdoor classroom
Instead of retrieving lost recess balls in the stream behind Fritz Elementary School on Tuesday, students picked up plastic bags, cardboard boxes and cans.
Fritz students in fourth and sixth grades cleaned up a section of the East Lampeter Township stream as the first step in creating an outdoor classroom.
The project is a collaboration between fourth-grade teacher Stephanie Carnahan and sixth-grade teacher Kevin Burkholder to make their classes aware of how pollutants in small bodies of waters, such as streams, affect rivers and bays.
Conestoga Valley High School juniors and seniors in Kerrie Snavely's freshwater biology classes also helped collect debris from the stream and taught the fourth-graders about organisms that live in fresh water.
Fourth-grader Victoria McCombs said she's been in the stream behind her school only few times.
"Most of the time we don't get to do this," Victoria said. "I learned a lot about the stream — like that too many minerals can make water hard."
Jeremy Sauder, also a fourth-grader, said he had been measuring the temperature of the water.
"It's pretty cold," Jeremy said. "I also found out that polluting the stream could lead to the extinction of some animals."
The stream flows into the Conestoga River, which empties into Chesapeake Bay in Maryland.
Tuesday was a fitting choice to kick off the project because it was the 38th world observance of Earth Day.
The outdoor classroom will consist of a wooden kiosk with benches. There will be removable maps of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed attached to the kiosk.
The outdoor classroom, which will be built by high school Technology Student Association members, is slated to open in the fall.
The project will cost about $2,000 and was made possible by a grant from the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Carnahan said she hopes the outside classroom will make students want to help preserve wetlands.
"I want students to learn that the survival of the Chesapeake Bay and other bodies of water depend on little streams like this," she said.
Burkholder said one of his goals is to foster teamwork.
"I hope this brings a sense of community and working together to help the environment," he said. "This is a small part of a big picture."
Sixth-grader Noah Kwiat said he was shocked when he recovered such debris as string, bottles and clothing from the stream.
"I really wanted to help clean up," Noah said. "Looking at the stream made me feel dirty. I want to be proud of what's around my school."
Noah said he learned Tuesday that maintaining healthy streams and rivers also means planting trees and keeping livestock out of the water.
"Doing these things can prevent erosion," he said.
Jackson Lennox, a sixth-grader, said he picks up litter in a pond near his home.
"I get rid of all the Coke bottles and soda cans," Jackson said. "Otherwise the water will be dirty and nothing around it will grow."
Cleaning Up litter, molding beautiful minds
Hampton Roads Daily Press, April 18, 2008
By Karen Hinson
Rose Scott is dedicated to keeping her community clean and has inspired children and neighbors to take up the cause
When Rose Scott took her daughter to her first day at Phoebus High School, she was repulsed by the unsightly campus. After unsuccessful attempts to get someone else to clean the school grounds, she took the job upon herself. What began as a "Beautification Team of One" has become a school-wide effort. Students, including Scott's daughter, now take responsibility for their own space.
Q: Why is it important for Hampton's schools to be beautified?
A: If the school is beautiful on the outside, my expectation is that beautiful things are happening on the inside. I also believe that everyone who sees our school, and especially those who enter, deserves to have clean surroundings. It will start your day off with a push toward the positive side.
Q: Does your work at the school spill over to your neighborhood?
A: Yes. My neighbors and I have adopted our street and our neighborhood. So weather permitting, once a week we collect litter. Our group, NWT (Neighbors Working Together) has planned to participate in the Great American Neighborhood Cleanup in May. With the help of other neighbors, we will collect litter from G Street to Powhatan Parkway. Our goal is to clean our neighborhood while meeting and working with other families who also want a clean community.
Q: How has this service challenged you?
A: The biggest challenge has been to find ways to get the students to volunteer and give up their precious Saturday mornings. Area businesses have been very helpful. The students are given McDonald's and Chic-fil-A coupons, passes to Century Lanes and Plaza Skating. Farm Fresh supplies refreshments. Wal-Mart, Target, Panera Bread and Krispy Kreme have also made donations to our cause of cleaning Hampton. These businesses are letting the kids know that they are doing a good thing.
Q: Has there been a teacher who has encouraged students to get involved?
A: Ms. Flood, the government teacher at Phoebus, has been the biggest help with getting volunteers. She gives her students extra credit for their participation. Once after thanking her profusely, she told me that she cannot teach U.S. Government without trying to instill civic responsibility in the kids. She demonstrates her understanding of the power she has with the lives of these children. Here I was thinking that I was doing such a good thing and her words humbled me, as she has been not just teaching government but truly symbolizing the word "teacher." To the kids collecting litter is punishment. That mindset has to change. I need a fantastic attraction to get them to participate.
Q: What are some of the benefits you see to your involvement?
A: This service has allowed me to be at the school any time I want. With a purpose. We have an open school policy, where we can visit at any time. However, if there is nothing specific to do, a parent feels out of place. Last year the PTSA formed a Weekly Weeding Club in an effort to encourage parents to visit school. After working outside, we would have lunch with our kids. Even high school kids are glad to see their parent in the middle of the day. An even bigger challenge is to get more parents into the school. When parents come out with their kids on our Beautification Day it is one more opportunity for bonding.
Q: Why do you continue to volunteer?
A: It feels good. Last week after school I saw students conditioning for their sports. They were running around the perimeter of the school. No one was dodging branches or running through tall grass. Others were using the batting cage. Before, it was overgrown with vines and tall grass — unusable. I sat in my car and smiled. It really felt good.
Q: What is your most memorable experience in the position?
A: Last school year I was frequently at school during the day picking up litter. My daughter, embarrassed, told me that the kids at school see me outside picking up trash. I sat her down and told her that there is no shame in picking up trash. The shame belongs to those who throw the trash out and cause the problem. Up to this point, I had been unable to convince her to get out of bed on Saturday morning to join the Beautification Team. The next time when I was preparing supplies for our clean-up, she said, "Mom, I am proud of what you are doing. Can I go with you tomorrow?" Now I will probably continue this for the rest of my life.
Q: Is there a person — either someone you know or someone famous — who inspired you to be involved in volunteer work?
A: Dr. Smith, then principal of Bassette Elementary, instilled in me a passion for the PTA. She worked harder than anyone else on our PTA board. She showed me that the PTA is one of the best ways for parents to contribute to their child's education. People working together for the good of the children. People advocating for the rights of the children. People working together to make school improvements and contributing in some way to ensure the tools their children need are in the school. The results were awesome. I learned the more you give, the more you receive.
Q: How have the beautification efforts affected the students?
A: Mr. Johnson, our principal, stresses that we are all part of the Phoebus Phantom Phamily. Our Beautification Team, in an effort to promote that theme and strengthen community relations, collects litter on the neighborhood streets surrounding our school. At the end of the day, the kids relate their stories of how the residents come out of their homes and praise them for what they are doing. The look on the kids faces says it all. Somebody, a total stranger, has thanked them, told them that they have made a difference. In today's world where they mostly hear negative things about their generation, this is the best. When the kids come out a second, third or fourth time, they tell me that they are more aware of their litter habits; when they see litter in some other place, they pick it up. My favorite is they tell their friends, "Don't put that on the ground. Pick it up and put it in the trash can!" They quickly learn that their actions do affect the bigger picture. They see the before and after pictures, they see the amount of litter we collect, and they feel the camaraderie that is shared among the participants. By being a part of this community service, they are learning citizenship.
Q: If you had an unlimited budget available to you, what would you spend the money on to make your work reach more people?
A: First I would get T-shirts for every person so that we may clearly be seen as the Phoebus High School students who are concerned about our environment, instead of the PHS students who every day litter the streets and yards to and from school. I'd also purchase a season's pass to Busch Gardens, or something equally enticing, to give to those who participate in a Beautification Day. Then I'd buy bumper stickers with our motto: "Pick up litter for one day…Use trash cans the rest of your life." I'd also like to see some changes: updates of the campus landscape, new seating and tables for lunch outside, replacement windows, updating of the mall and teachers' dining area.
Q: How do you show the volunteers that you appreciate their involvement?
A: We give gift cards to teachers for classroom supplies for sending out the most students to volunteer.In April after our cleanup, our team will meet at the Old Hampton Community Center. We will have a pizza party sponsored by the HCCC and have use of the entire center: swimming, basketball, exercise, game and weight rooms. On this day, none of these kids will have time to hang out on the corner, or say that they are bored and have nothing to do.
Q: Are there others who have been instrumental in Phoebus beautification?
A: Many people. It is not just me. I am simply fortunate enough to see a need and have the opportunity to try to put people together who have a similar vision. One student on our Beautification Team, Gracie, has started a recycling club at school and a Keep Hampton Clean group. They now collect litter on the waterfront in downtown Hampton. The Baumgard and Clinch families are always present; their assistance is invaluable. Also, my fellow PTSA board members are an exceptionally creative, imaginative and dedicated group of people. We challenge each other to think out of the box for solutions. We are trying to create opportunities for family involvement. Another key person is Dr. Russo, who is being called the superintendent for all the children in Hampton. Not just those who are lucky enough to win the lottery to Jones Magnet School or those whose parents can provide transportation to take them to one of the Fundamental Schools. I thank Dr. Russo for encouraging all citizens for their input in the school division. I also thank Farm Fresh, John Smith Enterprises, Century Bowling, Plaza Skating, Wal-Mart, Target, Chic-fil-A, Krispy Kreme, McFadden's, and Chili's for their generous support. Last but not least, the staff at Phoebus. Without their considerable help, this would not be happening.
Q: If you could send a message to people who litter, what would you say?
A: Litter: It literally hurts.
Rose H. Scott
Age: Old enough to tell you that the bloodiest fight in the old West between two women was when one asked the other her age.
Family: Two daughters, Catherine Scott, 15, at home; and Erica Bates, her husband and four sons in Seattle. I also have three stepchildren in Hampton and one in Seattle.
Hometown: Born at Fort Monroe; my father was in the military, so my hometown was around the world.
Occupation: Contract with Peninsula Agency on Aging; have an exercise class for seniors.
Copyright © 2008, Newport News, Va., Daily Press
April 19, 2008, Richmond Times-Dispatch
By Katherine Calos
Chesterfield students first to use new stations to study environment
Taking the class outside on a nice day always has been pleasant. At Virginia State Parks, it also can be educational.
The park system has introduced a Piedmont Edition of its SOL-based program, Your Backyard Classroom. About 100 third-graders from Salem Church Elementary School in Chesterfield County inaugurated it this week with an expedition to Pocahontas State Park.
Activities at five stations were keyed to specific lessons in the state Standards of Learning, giving teachers an easy justification for the trip.
For the kids, the justification was immediate:
"It is really cool!"
"Awesome!"
"Learning is fun!"
Beaver Pond was their favorite learning station. That's where each student got to use a seine net to scrape some muck off the bottom of the pond and see what was living in it.
"There's good stuff all over," said park interpreter Turner Wilkes, who was outfitted in wading boots so he could step into the water and keep "Little Limnologist" participants dry on the bank.
"In the deep mud is where you want to dig."
Among their finds were cricket frogs, crawdads, tadpoles, dragonfly nymphs, stonefly nymphs, katydid larvae, minnows, water pennies, snails and clams.
"About 50 percent of the endangered species in Virginia are clams," Wilkes said. "Why? Because they easily get killed by pollution."
An activity called "Much Too Dear" divided the students into teams representing white-tailed deer on one side and the availability of food, water and shelter on the other. Each deer had to decide what to seek; each student on the habitat side had to decide what to offer.
When the deer ran across to the habitat, anyone who found his target could bring it back. Anyone who didn't became part of the habitat. Plentiful food and shelter meant the number of deer would multiply. When the deer overwhelmed the supplies, the population dwindled.
Other activities illustrated erosion, adaptations that allow animals to hide and wild food.
Your Backyard Classroom grew out of a Chesapeake Bay education program in the 1990s, said John Heerwald, now retired from his state park position as director of interpretation and education. A mountain-based edition was released about four years ago.
As the program expanded statewide, the park system used it to overcome some obstacles that had kept teachers away.
"There were environmental curricula available, but teachers weren't using them in our parks," Heerwald said. Reasons included lack of familiarity with state parks, lack of knowledge about science and lack of equipment.
A half-day workshop at the park helps teachers get past the barriers before they get a loose-leaf binder filled with park maps and activities.
"They learn the basics, the logistics," he said. They find out that equipment for the activities is available at the park. "They meet the staff. The staff will walk them through two or three activities in the guide. It breaks down the initial roadblock. By requiring the workshop, they're more likely to come back."
Children at the first Backyard Classroom at Pocahontas State Park have another reason to return.
They helped state parks director Joe Elton plant a red oak tree in front of the Heritage Center.
"If we take care of this tree," Elton told them, "you'll be able to bring your children back to Pocahontas State Park and say, 'See that giant tree? I helped plant it.'"
Contact Katherine Calos at (804) 649-6433 or kcalos@timesdispatch.com.
Baltimore-Sun, April 27, 2008
By Susan Gvozdas
Gibson Island Country School project teaches about waste, saving the bay.
The fifth-grade class at Gibson Island Country School in Pasadena is both proud and sad about the 800 pounds of compost the school produced this year.
All of that trash was saved from a landfill. But the heavy heap represents food that students tossed out during the school year, said Christina Helowicz, a 10-year-old from Pasadena.
"Sometimes we see whole sandwiches in there," she said.
The students presented their findings Tuesday to their school as part of its weeklong Bay Days program. The event, which started four years ago, culminates a year's worth of student environmental projects.
"Everything was leading up to this week," said Tim Decker, the school's science teacher.
Second-graders went on a birding trip Monday to nearby Downs Park. First-graders went to Poplar Island Tuesday and released terrapins they raised into the Chesapeake Bay. Third-graders replanted oysters Wednesday in the Severn River and the fourth-graders planted bay grasses. The fifth-graders took the kindergarten class seining on Thursday on the Magothy Narrows, which borders the school's property.
The school also invited two children's book authors to give presentations. Jennifer Keats Curtis of Arnold talked to the students Monday about terrapins and ospreys and the hazards they face from pollution and development. Bianca Lavies, a former National Geographic photographer who lives in Annapolis, showed students slides of the wildlife photos she had taken over her career.
The Bay Days program changed little from last year, except for the expansion of the composting program. Decker, a transplant from Asheville, N.C., kept much of the curriculum the same because it is his first year at the school. Next year, he plans to work closer with the Magothy River Association because he wants his students to take more advantage of their location on the waterway.
Decker showed no shyness about ramping up the composting program, said Merrill S. Hall III, head of the school.
"Mr. Decker is very enthusiastic about making sure we know where it all goes," he said.
The fifth-graders took the lead on the composting project. Each homeroom had a white composting bucket where students could discard their food scraps from lunch and snack time. The children collected the buckets and weighed them before dumping them in the wooden compost receptacle in the back of the school. The smelly pile provided a clear picture to students of what happens to their throwaways.
"It teaches them to pack smaller lunches," Decker said. "It's a good way to keep them thinking and talking about [reducing waste]."
The decaying material has just started producing a rich soil that the school will use around the property, he said.
To further drive home the message of cutting back on trash, the school had a "no waste" day on Friday. Students could use only cloth napkins and reusable containers for their lunches.
Bay Days is all about encouraging students to be good environmental stewards, said Stephen Finan, a fifth-grader from Pasadena.
"It's teaching us to save the bay for later generations," he said.
Christina, his classmate, corrected him: "It's teaching us to save the world, really."
