February 2011 (Proszek)

Many things have happened for our group in February, despite the number of snow days. Here are some of the activities that have been happening this month:

Teaching: Our group has been in the classroom two times this month to teach the Boyd elementary students about recycling and other positive green activities. As always, healthy snacks were included and the students were well behaved. Unfortunately due to snow day conflicts I was unable to make the two teaching sessions, however there have been some good developments in other areas of our project with which I am more involved (more on that later).

We are looking forward to more teaching sessions in March, with a focus on keeping our ponds, forests, and sidewalks free of trash. As Spring begins to permeate the environment a little more, we will also talk about the energy from the sun and how we can use it in smarter ways to power the planet.

Carnival: In tandem with Central high school, our group will be hosting a "Think Green" carnival for the community on Earth Day. We have had our first meeting with the coordinator of the event at Central, and will continue to meet every Monday until the actual event to track the progress of our planning. I will be at the "ring toss" booth where kids can try to toss the ring onto empty plastic and glass bottles. Around the outside will be trash cans which are bad because "plastic and glass should never go into the garbage." Winners will receive a fun earth-friendly prize and everyone will walk away with a piece of candy. Again, the idea is that the kids learn that plastic and glass bottles should be recycled and not thrown into the trash, because plastic bottles are among the highest recyclable material that is put in landfills each year.

Garden: Our first event this semester was helping take the weeds out of Boyd's vegetable garden. In the coming months I am hoping to help the students plant and cultivate new vegetables for the garden. If successful, we might even be able to share some of the "fruits of our labor" with the entire Summit community during a class period. Only time will tell.

That's all for February, hopefully March brings less snow.