At Penny Creek Elementary, fifth-graders are in charge of picking up and emptying classroom recycle bins.
This year, they noticed the bins of 10 contained things that can’t be recycled: cellophane wrappers, yarn, paper clips.
So teachers at Penny Creek thought it would be a good idea for the students to make a movie they could show other students to educate them on what not to recycle at school.
Thus was born one of three conservation projects at the school that recently won $250 grants from the Pilchuck Audubon Society.
Hands-on learning often costs teachers money out of pocket, said Shelley Petillo, Penny Creek principal.
“I know for a fact they pay out of pocket — these teachers go on weekends to shop and get what they need,” she said. “The Audubon Society recognizes teachers do a lot of this out of pocket and I think that’s why they give them these grants.”
Wanda Hill, computer teacher at the school, wrote and won an Audubon grant for the recycling project, which she is doing with her fourth-grade classes.
Students are using a computer program to show pictures of things found in recycling bins, with narration on what’s acceptable and what’s not.
It will be shown in classrooms at the school to educate students.
Hill’s classes also will visit a recycling plant to see first-hand what goes on there.
Part of writing a grant is to explain why the same goal couldn’t be reached without funds, Hill said.
“The answer is usually no,” she said.
But the extra time and effort to do hands-on learning are worth it, she said.
“The hands-on learning tends to make more sense and it’s what the kids end up remembering,” she said.
The Audubon awards are given to school projects that show achievable wildlife and conservation goals.
Kristina Kee is another teacher at the school who won a grant. Her fifth-grade students have studied intertidal life, tide pools, beach erosion and the impact of pollution on beaches.
This year, they will take a trip to Padilla Bay to observe tidal life up close.
Teacher Janice Northrop’s outdoor garden, based on Lewis and Clark’s plant studies, also won grant money.
When Lewis and Clark came west, they documented the native plants they saw on the trip and put them in a notebook.
Northrop’s fourth- and fifth-grade classes have studied the plants Lewis and Clark encountered. Last year, they planted some of them in a garden at the school.
Because of money constraints, they were unable to complete the project.
The grant will allow the students to plant more native plants in the garden this spring, and to visit a horticultural site.
“It’s a really cool opportunity for kids to see that social studies connection in real life,” Petillo said.
She added that students now understand the difference between native plants – which are healthy for the environment – and non-native plants, which can be invasive.
To read about the plants Lewis and Clark saw is one thing, Hill said.
“To have the kids walk out to the courtyard and say, ‘This is something Lewis and Clark saw,’ really extends the learning incredibly,” she said.
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