Rocky Point Recycler's

In a Second grade regular education classroom comprised with half English Language Learners students will be learning how and why it is important to help our environment throughout the year. Students will work diligently on an Earth Day Project that will involve not only our school but our community. Students will work on researching and presenting to Kindergarten classes about the importance of recycling and how that contributes to our community.

The goals for this great are for students to learn how to research on a topic and develop a broader understanding about the importance of recycling in order to protect our environment. Students will be assessed based on their prentations using a rubric that will assess fluency, content, and mechanics of thier fina written work.
To begin members from Brookhaven Township will come in and speak to the class about what they do in our town to help clean up the environment and how it is helpful. Once we have sparked the attention of our students, they will be broken up into groups and find research on why we need to recycle? How we can recycle? And the benefits of recycling using the ipad touch to look up information.
After they have had sufficient time to research they will present the information back to our class and to the Kindergarten classes in our school using the ipad.
Another phase of this project that will incoporate our math and science unit will be to collect water samples and analyze the chemicals in the water in our community. Students will discuss how the chemicals in our water are a product of not keeping our environment clean.
Our students will then gather collect plastic bottles and cans to raise money for the Environmental Protection Agency. They will graph the amount of bottles they collected and make a table using the ipad exhibiting all the data that they gathered and calculate how much money they earned collecting bottles from the school.
In addition students will go to the local supermarket and decorate brown paper bags that may be given to shoppers to promote using brown paper bags in our community.
Next our community has many families who are in need of clothing. Students will write a letter that will go home to parents and have a clothing drive in our school. The amount of clothes will be graphed using the ipad touch and the amount of clothes that are given away will be graphed.
The last piece of our project will be for students to gather recyclable items from their home and build any invention that could help the environment. Students will use the ipad touch to make a video and make their project come to life. These projects will be presented at the science fair in our school.
All presentations will be presented using the Ipad touch to the Kindergarten, first grade and third grade students. In addition students will buddy up with highschool teaches to present their research to Highschool students and the Board of Education.
This integrated curriculum project addresses math, science, social studies, language arts and technology. In addition it promotes the listening and speaking skills of our English Language Learners. Students will be learning about a topic that integrates the community and helps families in need. One crucial skills for our second grade class is to teach them how to take notes and research. Note-takinga nd research is crticial for the upper grades. Students form habits at this young age, if we are able to teach, effective notetaking skills now, it will be a skill they can continually use as they get older.
Why is our environment important? We hear and read so much about protecting and saving the planet Earth. Why should we be concerned when we are also facing economic crises, wars and unending social problems as a society? so much is going on in our society today that concerns our environment such as the oil spill. This is a severe issue that students should be aware of and understand how they can help. The simplest explanation about why the environment matters is that, as humans, the environment--the Earth--is our home. It is where we live, breathe, eat, raise our children, etc. Our entire life support system is dependent on the well-being of all of the species living on earth. .
The food chain is an example of this. The sun provides light and heat for plants. The plants are consumed by animals who are in turn consumed by other animals who may in turn, be consumed by humans. Or perhaps they are used for material, clothing, etc. Even insects like mosquitoes play a role and of course bees pollinate plants.
Within the overall biosphere, or ecosystem, there are smaller ecosystems like the rainforests, marine ecosystems, the desert and the tundra. When any of these systems are off kilter, it impacts the entire planet. All of the environmental problems that exist have far-reaching implications for the health of our planet and its inhabitants.
For example, global warming causes a rise in sea levels which effects marine life. The rising sea levels also cause land erosion which harms the habitats of animals living by the coast. Global warming also melts polar caps and leads to arctic shrinking. This endangers the polar bears and other arctic wildlife. Since the icecaps are made of fresh water, they will throw off the saline levels in the ocean which will affect ocean currents. Furthermore, the ice caps reflect light. As they disappear the Earth will get darker and absorb more heat increasing the Earth's temperature.
The deterioration of the environment, often referred to as environmental degradation, threatens the earth's natural resources such as our clean water supply, fossil fuels for energy and food supply. Many of these resources are nonrenewable so when they run out we will be forced to find new alternatives.
Unfortunately the planet is in danger. Many species of animals and plants are nearing distinction. Our clean water supply is at risk and more and more of our beautiful, open spaces are disappearing as new buildings and factories are built.
It is the only home we have. Many experts believe that we can reverse some of the harm the planet has suffered. The challenge is getting enough people to take drastic enough action so that we can make a difference in our lifetime. Why wait to our students are adults for them to undestand... let's start now!