Seventh Graders Promote Sustainability

Rivers’ seventh graders presented an impressive array of “green solution” science projects at the annual Science Night in Kraft Hall Wednesday evening.
Rivers’ seventh graders presented an impressive array of “green solution” science projects at the annual Science Night in Kraft Hall Wednesday evening.
 
“Tonight is the culmination of the sustainability projects that we have been working on this year,” said class co-president Sophie Jacobs, in her introduction to parents and faculty who gathered for the presentations. Each student prepared a visual display and a research paper.
 
“We identified a problem and then researched a solution,” continued co-president Alex Clay.  “We picked topics that mattered to us and that we would enjoy working on.”
 
“In seventh grade science, we spend a lot of time exploring how different things, both living and nonliving, are interconnected in ecosystems,” commented science teacher Rod Tayler. “During the winter, when our studies shift to sustainability, our focus becomes how humans and their activities impact other parts of ecosystems. Having to come up with solutions requires students to have more detailed knowledge of the problems; frankly, this approach results in deeper understanding than they might acquire from textbooks.”   
 
Science Night, and the preparation that goes into it, allows students to not only research their own topic, but also to gain even more by listening to their classmates' progress reports and discussing those reports during the weeks leading up to the event.
 
Students certainly covered a range of topics in their research. One student proposed tackling the problem of kudzu, an invasive vine first brought to the U.S. from Japan to prevent erosion, by converting it to ethanol. Another student designed a wind turbine covered in solar panels, complete with a giant funnel to capture rainwater for electricity generation in wind, sun, or rain.
 
My students picked issues that resonated for them – fish decreasing, less snow on mountains, more hurricanes and worries about houses flooding,” said science teacher Emily Stevens. “They learned about increased ocean acidity and temperatures, rising sea levels, melting glaciers, and excess carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere. They decided upon ways in which they would address why they cared about climate change, gained understandings of specific technologies, and found ways to adapt and implement the technologies in new ways.” 
 
The timeliness of the projects was reflected in one student’s project that identified a certain pesticide (imidacloprid) as a cause of bee colony collapse.

“Just this week, scientists released data that indicates it's not that imidacloprid kills the bees, it actually interferes with their memory, so they forget where their hives are,” said Tayler.
 
As members of Rivers’ 21st Century Focus Group, Tayler and Stevens believe that what matters today it is not how much students know but what can they do with what they know.
 
“By developing green solutions, students learn that they can do something valuable with what they learn in school,” Tayler remarked. “So, I guess you could say that, in our own modest way, Emily and I are not just teaching sustainability but are also trying to develop innovators.”
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