The students studied the materials available and began to plan.
Two groups of fifth graders at Custer Baker Intermediate School decided the large fake leaves given to them could make a roof for a shelter they were tasked with building. One group decided the leaves could be a floor.
Other groups mounted tin foil and construction paper on toilet paper rolls and wooden sticks to design a shelter they could make on a deserted island, a challenge posed to them by environmental science curriculum developed and implemented by the Johnson County Recycling District.
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Kea Deppe, education and outreach coordinator with the Johnson County Recycling District, has been teaching students across the county with the district’s annual environmental survivor curriculum. On Friday, students at Custer Baker Intermediate School had to imagine how they would build shelter on a deserted island and build a prototype from material Deppe provided.
She has spent the school year going from school to school to give each fifth grade class she visits lessons about recycling, waste and the environment from the lens of the students being trapped on a deserted island. More than 700 students across the county have been given the lesson this school year and the curriculum is wrapping up just in time for Earth Day, Deppe said.
The curriculum was developed years ago and fits in with the recycling district’s goal to educate people, students and adults, about recycling and waste, Deppe said.
“Our big focus is education,” she said.
This curriculum is developed for fifth graders by having them imagine a different need they might encounter if they were stranded.
For example, the first lesson concentrated on how they would get water. They then had to think about how to find food and Deppe talked with the students about the amount of food waste in the United States and had the students create something from a used potato chip bag before tossing it away.
Deppe used the shelter scenario to explain to students about housing waste and how construction companies and home owners throw away items they perceive to be trash when they could be used again.
“We live in a throw away society,” Deppe told students. “It’s so silly, isn’t it.”
The program is geared toward students, and although the recycling district hosts multiple programs annually for adults, lessons seem to have more of an impact on students, Deppe said.
“They go back and they talk to their parents and family,” Deppe said. “They can go back and convince their family to make a change.”
Deppe also hears from students and families who have taken a lesson they learned through the curriculum and implemented it at home. A parent commented on a social media page that her child will now have the family pick up trash on the side of the road because of what the child learned in the program. Students have also shared that their families have come up with a recycling plan after hearing a lesson from Deppe, she said.
And students who have gone through the curriculum will make changes in their habits at home after what they have learned from the curriculum.
“When I have something to throw away, I always look it over it to see if I can do something with it,” said Trinity Foster, a fifth grader at Custer Baker Intermediate School.
Each student who completed the program was invited to attend a movie about the environment at the Artcraft Theatre and students also earned points throughout the year that they can use to get recycling district swag, Deppe said.
Students like taking the lessons they are learning to make a better planet for themselves, students said.
“It’s so we know to take care of our earth,” Akiya Elschide, a fifth grader at Custer Baker Intermediate School said.
