Environmental Issue Instruction
Kindergarten - Raising Chickens & WormsAfter reading about how helpful chickens and worms can be to our environment, kindergarten students raised chicken eggs in an incubator and learned to care for them after they hatched. The students also raised and cared for worms which they later set free in the school garden.
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First Grade - All About OwlsOur First Graders completed a 2-week unit study on owls. We learned about many types of owls, their habitats, and their diets. We discussed the importance of maintaining the owls habitats so they do not become extinct.
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Second Grade - Recycling BatteriesSecond grade students collected batteries throughout the months of February, March and April. Students donated the batteries to “The Big Green Box and Portable Electronics Recycling Program”. Once a week students collected the batteries and tallied the different types of batteries as well as the amount of each battery. Students graphed all of the information and presented it to other classes in the school. In total, the second graders collected 687 batteries in all.
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Third Grade - ResourcesStudents discuss various resources that people use in the classroom. They look through a list to discuss these resources and proper disposal methods and are then asked to draw a resource and label it on an index card. Student then use the cards to play a game. The classroom has four labels, one in each corner: waste, recycle, compost, and reuse. Students must grab a card and quickly place it in its correct area. The cards are counted to asses if the students have grasped the concept of proper disposal of each resource.
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Fourth Grade - RecyclingThe 4th graders read Just a Dream, a story about a boy’s trip into a future shaped by present day’s disregard for the environment, by Chris Van Allsburg. After reading and discussing the story, they researched facts about recycling and created a poster to inform other about the benefits of recycling.
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Fifth Grade - Squirt the TerrapinTerrapin time! The 5th grade class of 2011 voted to name their terrapin “Squirt,” after the first terrapin St. Andrew’s raised from a hatchling five years ago.
“Terrapins in the Classroom,” a program sponsored by the National Aquarium to teach children about these rugged, sturdy animals that call the Chesapeake Bay home, also teaches students to respect and care for the headwaters and resources of the Bay. St. Andrew’s 5th graders are learning all aspects of terrapin care throughout the school year, from daily measuring of water and air temperature, to monitoring food and waste, to measuring growth of the carapace (shell top), plastron (shell bottom), height, width and weight of the terrapin as it grows from a hatchling to a juvenile ready for release into the Bay. “Squirt” will be tagged by National Aquarium researchers prior to release in the spring, and can then be tracked over the course of its new life as a Maryland terrapin living in the Chesapeake Bay. “Squirt” is one of 30 hatchlings in the National Aquarium’s program, and fits in perfectly with the AquaEcosystem program offered at St. Andrew’s Day School, which gives all students hands-on opportunities to learn about caring for the communities of life within the Chesapeake Bay. Through partnerships with the National Aquarium, Chesapeake Bay Trust, and the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, St. Andrew’s students have raised terrapins, rockfish and perch for re-introduction to the Bay, as well as growing native Chesapeake Bay grasses on campus for replanting to critical areas of the Bay. |
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Sixth Grade 2012 |
Seventh Grade - Third World GardensWhile working in the St. Andrew's garden, the 7th graders began to wonder about agriculture in 3rd world countries. They researched this topic on the internet and discovered that 3rd world families often do not have access to enough land or clean water to be able to grow a thriving garden. These gardeners need to get creative with their growing mediums and containers. The 7th graders experimented with several of the atypical gardening methods they learned about, planting tire gardens, shallow bed gardens. wick gardens, pallet gardens, socks & cans gardens, and lasagna wick gardens.
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Eighth Grade - Project CitizenFor their 2011 Earth Day project, the 8th graders participated in Project Citizen. They researched invasive species, particularly those which are currently regulated by state or federal law. The students learned about species which are widely recognized by biologists and resource managers to have a negative effect on natural ecosystems and native species.
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ArtStudents have many examples of how we recycle, reuse, and repurpose in our art assignments. They will also see examples of how artists all over the world do the same.
The room has several examples of art from other countries using recycled products (a lizard and a ship made from flattened soda cans) and the students are exposed to many professional artists who use recycled materials: Picasso, Deborah Butterfield horses. A bin of collected materials—“precious junk” ---is kept on hand for special projects in every grade to teach students to contribute interesting “junk”, use their imagination, make small sculptures, and value What might otherwise be thrown out.. Examples; 1st grade insects (after discussing insect body parts/ what makes an insect), 2nd grade birds (after discussing the definition of a bird) 3rd grade castles (group sculptures) |