- April 24, 2024
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The second grade beach clean up was postponed because of bad weather, but they are determined to reschedule. Photo by Jacque Estes
Matilda Gardener, a second grade student at Old Kings Elementary, added her drawing to the i3 Academy mural on Friday, April 22. Photo by Jacque Estes
The OKES second graders posed for a photo. The schedule beach clean up was postponed due to lightening in the area. Courtesy photo by Bart Christner
Mother Nature had something to say about a beach cleanup scheduled by Ellen Sperber's Old Kings' second grade class on Friday, April 22. She said “no” in the form of lightning strikes as the students were gathering at the Flagler Beach Pier.
The children and their parents did take time to have a couple of photos taken by the microplastics awareness blackboard, created by Courtney VandeBunte's i3 Academy class 12 hours before.
The event, intended to be part of Earth Day observances, will be rescheduled according to Sperber.
“We can't go out tonight, with the lightning, but we are going to come back and have a beach cleanup,” Sperber said. “Every day is Earth Day.”
When the children return, they will be collecting beach trash, specifically -- plastics.
“We will collect and bring the plastic back to the school,” Sperber said. “It will be recycled when the project is completed.”
Before being recycled, the shoreline plastics will be placed in plastic bags, and taken to OKES to make a visual illustration of the problem.
“For every foot of shoreline, there are five grocery bags full of plastics,” Sperber said. “We are duplicating that in the hallways at school, placing the bags for every square foot of trash they have found.”
Sperber is hoping the i3 New Tech Marine Biology students will be able to join her class when the beach cleanup is rescheduled. The i3 students had a full weekend, beginning at the pier at 5:30 a.m. on Friday, and helping out at an environmental booth at Washington Oaks Garden State Park's Earth Day, on Saturday, April 23, and wouldn't have been able to participate in the beach cleanup.
“The multi-level collaboration on peer learning is cooperative in nature and provides an opportunity for students to share ideas, knowledge, and experiences,” Sperber said in an email. “Both classes gain greater clarity and purpose to the project as they share their unique thought-processes to the initiative of microplastic awareness.”
One of Sperber's students, Matilda Gardner, stopped by the i3 morning event to add to the mural.
“She is very passionate about this,” her dad Matthew Gardner said. “She 's been excited about what she has learned, and tells us all about it.”
The students are also reaching out to large corporations by writing letters asking them to “go green.” Knowing that many who visit Flagler Beach may not be familiar with the problem, the class is designing “Posters and Coasters,” information to be distributed to local restaurants, about how microplastics are affecting the beach.
“The plight of microplastics is one that the current population is just beginning to uncover,” Sperber said. “Our classes of students are passionate about saving marine animals, by bringing awareness to to the microplastic problem, and suggesting opportunities for humans to consume less plastic.”
Read a related story:
http://www.palmcoastobserver.com/photo-gallery/flagler-palm-coast-i3-academy-students-create-temporary-mural-permanent-message
