6th Grade Plans for Better Resource Management
On November twenty-eighth and ninth, Mr. Martin's sixth grade science classes collected trash around the school and at Black's Run watershed.
This clean-up day took place during a unit on rivers and river clean-up.
This project was designed to increase trash awareness, and how littering affects the rivers; and to get the kids thinking about ways to reduce the amount of trash disposed of improperly.
The majority of the trash found around the school came from either the EMHS parking lot or close to the building.
They collected 236 pieces of trash total, finding food, drinks, construction material, metal, paper, school supplies, plastic, clothes/cloth, and Styrofoam; with pieces of plastic and food wrappers comprising over half of the trash found.
"I want to do this project again, but next time I hope the numbers (of trash) are different" said Joseph Burns.
After finding all the trash they could, the classes worked with percents, figuring what percent of the total pieces of trash each trash category they picked up was.
As part of their field trip the class was required to write a few paragraphs about their experience, and how they thought the trash problem could be helped.
Ben Ghaemmaghami thought that, "Every two weeks or so, possibly on a Saturday, people could come and pick up trash. Because people mostly like to have a reason to do something, grants would be asked for from local businesses to give out coupons or something like that when people worked for an hour or so."
Mary Zook said that, "Littering is harmful for the ecosystem and I wish people would get that into their heads. It really makes me sad when I think of birds, squirrels, ground hogs, possums, chipmunks, moles, field mice, and all other cute, fuzzy (sometimes rabid) animals choking on some wrapper that a careless person didn't pick up. If everyone could take 30 seconds or less to just put their garbage in the right place, the world could be 100 times better. Our school should have a compost and recycling program."
"The world would look so much better if people recycled and didn't litter."
Carolina May wrote that, "We should place more trash cans and recycling bins outside so we are not tempted to litter, though I don't believe the litter on the school grounds was deliberately placed there. We should place the trash in our vehicles in bags, so it doesn't get brushed out when we exit. I think we should be more careful when eating a snack outside, and immediately throw away our wrappers."
Brougan Brown wrote, "That we should put a sign up that says no littering. IT'S BAD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT! It will remind people that littering is against the law and that it is bad for the world that we live in today." "All we can do is encourage people to not litter."
Joseph Burns noted that he doesn't "think people are purposely throwing trash on the ground."
Kendall Dean thought we should "have a day to clean your car," or maybe, "put recycling cans outside of school entrances."
The sixth graders are going to look more in-depth at trash awareness in their upcoming mini-term.
- Eric Broderson
