| Transcript: Glenn Gurley: Earth Day 1999 will be on Thursday, April 22. Did you
know that on an average each American generates over four pounds of garbage each day?
During this Town Meeting there will be a discussion about what students have done, are
doing, and plan to do to make a difference on the planet on which we live.
Glenn Gurley: I welcome everyone!!! I would like each
participating school to identify teacher, class, school, grade, county, AND number of
participants. Also, let us know if you plan to share on a specific topic. |
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Brenda Lange:
Hello from the Teachers Connect office. I will be helping Glenn with visual aids.
Welcome everyone! Grace Repass: I am at McDougle
Elementary School in Chapel Hill. There are no students here; it is a teacher workday!
Scott Balliet: We are in Johnston County, Cleveland
Elementary School, and we 25 2nd graders.
Trenton Elementary: Hello from Trenton Elementary in Jones
County. My class is not here yet, but I will be joined shortly by Mrs. Harper's 5th grade
class. She has, I believe, 21 students.
Mt. Pleasant Elemen: We are from Mt. Pleasant Elementary
School in Mt. Pleasant in Cabarrus County. We have Mrs. Brandon's 4th grade (25 students)
and Mr. Henderson's 2nd grade (24 students). We are doing a project on composting and our
worms are due to arrive TODAY!
South Smithfield: Good Morning Mr. Gurley, our second grade
class is glad to be part of the conference.
Morehead City: Good Morning! This is Mrs. Susan Vallance's
3rd grade at Morehead City Primary. |
| Glenn Gurley: Throughout
the Town Meeting I will send out "Did you know…" facts like
this…. Glenn Gurley: Did you know…
Every week more than 500,000 trees are used to produce the
two-thirds of newspapers that are never recycled.
Brenda Lange: I would like to know how many of your students
have curbside recycling at home?
Mt. Pleasant Elemen: We have 13 students
South Smithfield: Eight out of nine in our present group have
curbside recycling
South Smithfield: Our students put out cans, bottles,
newspapers and wood |
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Glenn Gurley: We are
going to discuss the three R's today. Can anyone tell me the words for the three R's? Mt. Pleasant Elemen: Recycle, repair, reduce
Glenn Gurley: Recycle, Reduce and?
Mt. Pleasant Elemen: Reuse is the last word
Scott Balliet: How about reduce, reuse and recycle?
Brenda Lange: Excellent! You're on top of things today,
students :-)
Glenn Gurley: Speaking of Reuse
Glenn Gurley: Let's look at Reuse. Look at this peanut butter
jar, I pulled it off a shelf at my house. We are reusing the container to hold seeds. I
would like each school to brainstorm ways that we could reuse this peanut butter jar.
Grace Repass: At my house we put nails in peanut butter jars.
Glenn Gurley: Great ... let's brainstorm classes!
Brenda Lange: At my house, we use plastic peanut butter jars
so we can store things like cotton balls, Q-tips, etc. for the bathroom.
Glenn Gurley: We are making a list of ways we can reuse a
peanut butter jar... let's hear from all the students!
Morehead City: We can wash it and put in birdseed. |
| South Smithfield: We
brought our worms today...We take food from the cafeteria and use the humus produced for
our tulips and butterflies Glenn Gurley: We will
discuss the composting next...
Brenda Lange: Hold on to those worms! I'm looking forward to
hearing about your project a little later on. |
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Brenda Lange: Do any
of your teachers (like maybe the art teacher) reuse jars at school? Glenn Gurley: I use jars in my shop to store nuts and bolts...
Joe Poletti: I use jars to hold paint
Grace Repass: Yes, our art teacher puts different colors of
paint in jars.
Morehead City: We use a jar for estimation, marbles for
behavior, and for an experiment we are doing with eggs and vinegar.
Glenn Gurley: Great Morehead City :-}
Glenn Gurley: Let's hear from the other schools as we go...
Trenton Elementary: My teacher has a jar on her desk to hold
math manipulative.
Scott Balliet: We could put teacher supplies in a jar, like
paper clips, and stuff like that. |
| Glenn Gurley: Did
you know… American consumers and industry throw
away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial airfleet every three months.
Morehead City: One of our students uses aluminum pans to make
toy airplanes.
Glenn Gurley: Looking back at the first time that I really
remember there was a push for the trash we generate was in 1990. At that time
we started recycling at my house and I began my first compost pile. Since then we have
been doing our part to Recyle, Reduce, and to Reuse. |
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Glenn Gurley: You have
listed ways to reuse... let's look at recycle...What does recycle mean? Morehead City: Use again! We have recycling bins at many of our
houses. We recycle glass bottles (clear), we look at the number on the bottom of plastic
containers, we recycle aluminum cans and newspapers.
Scott Balliet: Use stuff that has already been used.
Brenda Lange: We recycle newspapers, soda cans, milk jugs,
and soda bottles. Using again can mean turning it into other products. Does anyone have a
white plastic chair on his or her deck? It's probably recycled plastic!
Glenn Gurley: In Charlotte we have curbside pickup and
containers like Ms. Lange is showing...
Brenda Lange: What other kinds of recycled things do you
think you might have at home?
Scott Balliet: We put bottles and cans and newspaper, in blue
boxes each Sunday. |
| Glenn Gurley: Did
you know… American consumers and industry throw
away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial airfleet every three months.
Glenn Gurley: South Smithfield will share about their compost
efforts at their school... take over Smithfield.
South Smithfield: We just had a second grade student show the
worm bin. We have a different bin for each grade level
Brenda Lange: South Smithfield - can you show the bin again?
We all didn't get a chance to see it.
Glenn Gurley: We compost all of our organic materials around
our house... except for dairy products and meat
Brenda Lange: Why don't you compost dairy products and meat?
South Smithfield: The dairy products are difficult for the
worms to digest
Glenn Gurley: I will show a picture of the worm bin at our
house.
Brenda Lange: What does each grade level put in their bin for
the worms?
South Smithfield: Ms. Bridgers our science teacher has given
each grade a list to include from the cafeteria
Brenda Lange: Does each grade have a different product to
collect?
South Smithfield: I know the list was hard to see
South Smithfield: They have experimented with different
items. And over the summer students take the worms home to feed. I wasn't given a group of
worms because I like to fish too much. Some of the items of food are apple cores, bananas
and greens . . .almost anything but meats and dairy products
Glenn Gurley: It is important that you don't put in dairy and
meat products because they draw mice and rats... sometimes raccoons invade my compost bin.
Glenn Gurley: Thanks for sharing South Smithfield...
excellent example of recycling at work |
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Glenn Gurley: Did
you know… Every year we dispose of 24 million
tons of leaves and grass clippings, which could be composted to conserve landfill space.
Joe Poletti: So then we don't really have to rake? We can
just leave the leaves in our yards? Yay
Glenn Gurley: We use the compost and worms for our gardens...
it is hard to believe how the food breaks down...
South Smithfield: Yes, our tulips love the humus...and our
butterflies love the tulips
Brenda Lange: Is that reusing?
South Smithfield: Yes. We take the leftover from the
cafeteria and reuse it with the worms...then to the plants as humus...which help sustain
our butterflies
South Smithfield: Our school is part of the Journey North
program tracking the monarch migration. |
| Glenn Gurley: Did
you know… Americans go through 2.5 million
plastic bottles every hour, only a small percentage of which are now recycled.
Scott Balliet: Why don't they recycle?
Morehead City: At our school some projects
we participate in are beach sweep, PE pickup, and we have all planted gardens. We can see
a need for worm bins at our school. We throw away a lot of food in the cafeteria. We could
use the compost and worms in our gardens.
Scott Balliet: We wish we could do that at
our school.
Brenda Lange: Some people that I know that
don't recycle think it's too much trouble. Others think the little bit that they have to
recycle doesn't make that much difference.
Glenn Gurley: Do any schools recycle aluminum cans?
How does it work?
Brenda Lange: We have bins in the teacher's lounge.
The cans go to the firefighters for the burn center support.
Scott Balliet: Our teachers recycle cans in big
buckets.
Morehead City: We also have bins in our school. We
also have a class who recycles cans as a project once a year. They bring cans from
everywhere. |
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Glenn Gurley:
I remember when I was in school way back in the early 1960s - we had paper drives. The
first time I learned that paper could be recycled. Brenda
Lange: Does anyone recycle paper at school?
South Smithfield: We use newspapers in our worm
bins and our Assistant Principal has helped collect old phone books
Morehead City: Yes we have recycling bins that we
put used paper in. We do not know what happens with the paper when it leaves our room. |
| Glenn Gurley:
Did you know… We throw away enough glass
bottles and jars to fill the 1,350-foot twin towers of New York's World Trade Center every
two weeks.
Glenn Gurley: It usually takes less energy to make
recycled products; recycled aluminum, for example, takes 95% less energy than new aluminum
from bauxite ore.
Scott Balliet: Why don't more people recycle?
Glenn Gurley: I think that people think their
little bit does not matter... but it does...
Brenda Lange: Why don't more people recycle sounds
like a good question to ask the people in your community...then put the information into a
graph to see the top five reasons why recycling isn't happening.
RJ: In Chatham County, we have the opportunity to
recycle all.....but are required to recycle alum. |
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Glenn Gurley:
Anyone recycle glass? Brenda Lange: Glenn,
what are some of the things made from recycled glass - do you know?
Glenn Gurley: I know that glass can be recycled
forever into more glass.
Morehead City: Can windows be made from recycled
glass?
Glenn Gurley: Glass is separated into green, brown,
and clear glass, the clear glass can be made into windows
Morehead City: Bottles can be made from recycled
glass.
Glenn Gurley: They crush the glass and make cutlet
which can be recycled into new glass
Brenda Lange: Can the green and brown glass be
turned into anything besides bottles and jars?
Glenn Gurley: It is made into products that are not
clear |
| Glenn Gurley:
Did you know… We throw away enough office
and writing paper annually to build a wall twelve feet high stretching from Los Angeles to
New York City.
RJ: Glenn, some of my students are helping
to build that wall......unfortunately
Glenn Gurley: Do any schools recycle their school
paper?
Brenda Lange: Recycling paper and cardboard makes a
BIG difference. Once I started recycling both of those items, I only had to put my garbage
bin out once a month!
Mt. Pleasant Elemen: Don't they put crushed glass
into new roads?
Morehead City: We have a student who last year
planted an apple tree and then the class made the fertilizer.
Glenn Gurley: In the office at the DPI we recycle
all of our office paper. Had to train myself not to throw it away.
Brenda Lange: That's really what recycling,
reducing, and reusing is all about....training yourself to do it rather than tossing it
away and being "trashy".
Morehead City: One of our students made a playhouse
out of a cardboard box to play in at home. |
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Glenn Gurley:
Did you know… We throw away enough iron and
steel to continuously supply all the nation's automakers.
RJ: Some day our great grandchildren will be
without because of our waste......
Glenn Gurley: Let's look at reduce... what does
that mean?
Mt. Pleasant Elemen: Mr. Henderson's class recycled
the Styrofoam from new computers to make futurist communities
Brenda Lange: Do you have pictures of those
futurist communities? I'll bet they look great :-)
Morehead City: Mrs. Vallance received a neat
Christmas decoration made from recycled baby food jars and Christmas lights. It looks like
a pyramid. |
| Glenn Gurley: During
the remainder of this session I would like for you to consider if there is an
environmental project you would like to do with another school in North Carolina? Glenn Gurley: I will give you time in a few minutes to share
your ideas and see if some schools can work together to plan and implement a collaborative
project.
Joe Poletti: Maybe something with all the Styrofoam
in school cafeterias?
RJ: Joe... I hate that cafeterias seem to use the
Styrofoam needlessly
Joe Poletti: Yes, what can be done as an
alternative to Styrofoam? Good project for students to solve, Ruby . . .
RJ: Joe...... yes...... I agree..... We have asked
why the cafeterias use Styrofoam when trays could just as well be washed..... and the
answer we get is...on some days they are shorthanded......
South Smithfield: Does any school have a policy
about containers used in the cafeteria?
Morehead City: Our cafeteria is trying real hard to
use less Styrofoam plates. We only use them when the cafeteria is short, due to workers
illness. |
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Brenda Lange: Doesn't
reducing mean to look at some of the packing that things come in and perhaps choosing to
buy the product with the least amount of wrapping? Glenn
Gurley: Reduce means to purchase things that don't have excessive wrappings...
Brenda Lange: So buying a three-liter of soda
instead of 24 cans is an example of reducing?
Grace Repass: If you buy something in the store you
can carry it out without a bag.
Glenn Gurley: We need to contact companies that use
excessive containers...
RJ: Fast food restaurants seem to be the biggest
violators......
Brenda Lange: They're doing better
though...remember the Styrofoam hamburger containers that McDonalds gave up?
RJ: Brenda.... Most fast food restaurants still
over package.....
Brenda Lange: Fast food used to put everything in a
bag, too. Now they give you a tray if you eat in...
Mt. Pleasant Elemen: Mr. Henderson's class is
taking a survey from fast food restaurant drive through- how many napkins are given?
Brenda Lange: What a great idea Mr. Henderson's
class! Let us know the results...
Glenn Gurley: Any schools have projects or want to
join Mr. Henderson's class...
RJ: Mr. Henderson, where are you?
Mt. Pleasant Elemen: We are at Mt. Pleasant
Elementary School in Mt. Pleasant, NC |
| Glenn Gurley:
My class worked with four other schools and exchanged data we collected of trash that was
thrown away at students' home for one day. RJ:
Glenn, I've done that type of tracking in the past with my students.......
Glenn Gurley: There will be an online project next
year called Positively Trashy... Check the Teachers Connect site next school year to
participate...
Glenn Gurley: Also, on Earth Day 1999, April 22 we
will have an environmental session on environmentally endangered sites with Al
Bodzin. Please join us! |
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Brenda Lange:
Perhaps it would be good to share e-mail address now for future collaboration. Mt. Pleasant Elemen: awatson@ctc.net
RJ: rjones@chatham.k12.nc.us If someone wishes to
contact a fourth grade.......*S*
Morehead City: We would like to tally trash we use
in our classroom for a week and compare it to another classroom at another school.
RJ: Morehead City...... Would you like to do this
next week?
Morehead City: svallance@mcp.carteret.k12.nc.us if
someone is interested in working with a third grade. Yes |
| Glenn Gurley:
Any last comments... this hour flew for me... so much to discuss and so little time...
great input students! RJ: Glenn...... We will
see you then.......*S*
Scott Balliet: Our class is going to have to leave
for lunch, but we want to thank everyone for giving us some good ideas.
Grace Repass: A wonderful and educational session;
thanks Glenn and everybody!
South Smithfield: We have to go from Johnston
County, we enjoyed it.
RJ: Morehead City...... I will look at the
transcript and get back to you this weekend....ok?
Glenn Gurley: These transcripts will be on our site
for your future reference... network and let us know how your projects go...
Linda Bray NG: Sorry about being late. We just were
able to log in. I will review the transcript.
RJ: Thanks...Glenn..........*S*
Linda Bray NG: Thanks Glenn.
Glenn Gurley: Thanks Linda... always great to CU
Morehead City: Thanks Mr. Gurley! Have a great day.
RJ that will be fine! You may also email mdwillis@mcp.carteret.k12.nc.us I am tech
coordinator and may be able to help Mrs. Vallance. |
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