protecting the planet

Students in Laura Flicker's fifth-grade class watched carefully as an oil slick moved toward the shore Friday in Takoma Park.

The slick of olive oil wasn't in Sligo Creek, but in a foil baking ban at Montgomery College, where students from Piney Branch Elementary were getting a hands-on lesson about the environment to celebrate Earth Day.

The more than 250 students from Piney Branch and Sligo Adventist elementary schools and the college's Child Development Center visited the college planetarium and participated in science and environmental demonstrations in the college's gymnasium. The students measured the heat absorption of different colored materials, experimented with different ways to clean up the simulated oil spill and learned the importance of recycling.

Karen Benn Marshall, chairwoman of the college's biology department, said she wanted the students to have fun while learning important lessons about the Earth.

"I learned not to litter and to care for plants," said Micah Rubin, 8, a third-grader at Piney Branch Elementary who lives by Sligo Creek Park in Silver Spring. "The creek is home to many different kinds of fish. We have to take care of them."

"Don't litter, so the animals can be safe, and the people, too," is what Takoma Park's Thomas Beyene, 9, also a third-grader at Piney Branch, said he learned.

Recycling and protecting the environment were themes heard repeatedly as the college's faculty and students led demonstrations at nine stations set up on the gym floor. At one table, the children learned how to make aquariums and terrariums from plastic drink bottles, while at another, they learned how to measure acidity and alkalinity in water and soil samples.

Recycling is a concept that many of the students already understand because they're exposed to it daily, Flicker said. "They know it in and out."

"I don't think that they're as aware of the conservation of resources," she said. "They understand that you should recycle plastic, but they don't necessarily understand why they shouldn't buy Lunchables," a ready-to-eat lunch product that is packaged in non-recyclable plastic.

Children will have an easier time understanding the importance of environmental concepts like conservation if educators reach them at an early age, said Marshall, who is working on a doctoral degree in science education. "I've got a burning desire to make sure that we reach kids early."

While the Earth Day program was designed for kids ranging in age from 5 to 11, the older students from Piney Branch had an opportunity to see what they've learned in the classroom, Flicker said.

For example, when faced with globs of olive oil heading toward a pile of pebbles in a foil pan, Flicker said her students approached the problem ecologically as they figured out the best way to clean the oil from the water.

Several of Flicker's students said the habitat-building demonstration was one of their favorites. Using shoeboxes, the students selected the appropriate materials for a specific type of animal and after they were done, they took the habitat back to their classroom.

"There are many ways to make habitats," said Takoma Park's Chimeziri Onyewu, 10, a Piney Branch fifth-grader, who worked with Carina Zox, 11, of Silver Spring and a college student to create a habitat for an ant.

Terah Jones, 11, of Takoma Park seemed to capture the sentiment of many of her Piney Branch classmates: "This is just a fun way to learn this information."

And that was the point, Marshall said: to make science fun. "This is going to have to be the first of many events that we do to capture our kids' interest in science."