Eighth Grade Environmental Projects ‘Get Better Every Year’

By Larissa Lytwyn

This year, three of Newtown Middle School’s eighth grade classes, taught by Judy Cantonese, Wendy Bown, and Val Leone, involved their students in ecological science projects, in which students identified, studied, and proposed solutions to environment problems ranging from the use of toxic cleaning products to battery recycling.

“Each year the projects get better and better,” said Ms Cantonese, who oversaw the projects for the third consecutive year. “The topics become increasingly varied and challenging.”

The projects were part of students’ final grade for the year.

Each had to identify, explain, and offer alternative resolutions to an environmental concern through a report and class presentation using visual aids.

Students could work independently, in pairs, or small groups.

Christian Jeffries and Kevin Walsh used meters to measure how much electricity the average household consumed each day.

The findings of the project, entitled “Lower the Voltage,” surprised the boys.

“I didn’t know how easy it was to consume so much [energy],” said Christian.

They found that oil, the burning of fossil fuels, was the biggest energy consumer; the best utilization of electricity was through the use of natural gas.

“We didn’t focus on solar energy because we wanted to stay centered on sources of [manmade] energy,” explained Kevin. “While we discovered how much energy we consume, we also found a lot of ways to minimize the impact.”

These ways included turning off the lights in unoccupied rooms and using natural gas in lieu of oil.

“Also, people should shut down their computers and video game systems when they are not using them,” advised Kevin. “Being in ‘sleep’ mode or idle actually uses up a lot of power.”

Being conscientious of electricity use is especially important in the summer, when usage of fan and air conditioning systems increase considerably.

“Keep your [window] shades down during the down,” recommended Christian.

General Electric and other power companies have even released public advisories in recent weeks urging consumers to minimize their electricity use during the day, following an “after 8 pm” rule to do laundry, dishes, and perform other household duties.

Cole Depuy and Jake Woolf focused on battery recycling.

“We went to 20 households in our neighborhoods and found that most people throw out dead batteries,” said Cole. “There aren’t a lot of recycling facilities in the area that include batteries, including the recycling facility in Newtown.”

“It’s also not even advertised very often that dead batteries can even be recycled!” added Jake.

The students organized a battery collection drive throughout their neighborhood and sent the products to a recycling center in Long Island that recycles batteries.

While many students focused on recycling and conservation, others pursued creative ways to engage their younger peers in environmental education.

Laura Bittman, for example, created an environmental board game designed to teach children about the different kind of pollution and efforts they could make to reduce it.

She even tested the game in a third grade class at Sandy Hook school.

Sally Toms compiled her own vegetarian cookbook using all natural products. She even cooked a vegetarian meal for her family.

Rob Blanc studied ways that golf courses, which critics have long decried as wasting precious land resources, try to be environmentally responsible.

The Ridgefield Golf Course, for example, which Rob visited, uses biodegradable golf tees and balls.

Christopher Parker was among several studies who did work on composting, including educating friends and neighbors on the construction of compost containers and the ways that maintaining such a process can help the environmental naturally break down waste.

Mary Kate Hubbard took the compost concept a step further, actually producing paper from lawn grass. “I boiled grass for seven to eight hours in laundry detergent,” she explained. The hardened material was then dried in the sun to produce a whitish brand of paper Mary Kate said could be used for note-taking and other tasks.

Bryony Langdon researched the Batchelder Aluminum Smelting site in Newtown. “It really needs to be cleaned up,” she said, and recently wrote a letter to state government requesting state funding for the site’s revitalization.

“The projects were all very involved and creative,” said Ms Leone. “The students really did an excellent job this year!”