Berkeley County Middle College High School issued the following announcement on March 24.
Before her students left the classroom to start collecting trash outside, fifth-grade science teacher Wendy White warned her students: “You wait ‘til you see how much garbage is out there…You’re going to see a lot of garbage that should not be there.”
Her prediction was right on the money; armed with gloves and trash bags, her students walked around the outdoor area behind the school and spent a portion of the class period stuffing litter into bags, and judging by a reoccurring “Ewwww!” expressed by the students, they seemed pretty surprised by the stuff they found.
All of Philip Simmons Middle’s science teachers and students had plans to participate in the Great American School Cleanup on Wednesday, with different grade levels covering different parts of the campus.
White introduced the event to her students using a video narrated by Sloane Chinners, K-12 science coordinator for BCSD.
Chinners said this big cleanup event was done in partnership with Keep American Beautiful and its local affiliate, Keep Berkeley Beautiful. The Great American Cleanup is meant to bring communities across the country together for a grassroots spring-cleaning movement. The event is celebrating its 24th year – the most recent event brought together millions of volunteers who picked up millions of pounds of litter, cleaning more than 100,000 acres of public spaces, and tens of thousands of miles of roadways and shorelines.
Keep Berkeley Beautiful is hosting a local Great American Cleanup event at the Hatchery Boat Ramp on Lake Moultrie on March 26. Meanwhile, Berkeley County School District schools have been encouraged to participate in their own school-based events during the week leading up to March 26 – other schools, including Cane Bay High, Berkeley Middle, Foxbank Elementary and J.K. Gourdin Elementary reportedly had cleanup events scheduled around late March.
“We want to make sure our Berkeley County students are citizens of the world, and understand that they fit into a bigger picture,” Chinners said in the video. “We work together to keep Berkeley County beautiful, keep America beautiful – we’re also keeping our earth clean and safe for everyone.”
Schools were further encouraged to provide gloves and trash bags, and get students to walk around outside to pick up litter at school, and to also have a discussion with them about the importance of not littering, and how litter affects the earth. This cleanup outing connects to multiple classroom standards in science, social studies, health and P.E.
White’s third-period science class ended up filling 10 small bags of trash with garbage collected around the fifth-graders’ recess area. When they returned to class, White made a list on the board of all the types of trash the students saw during the excursion – students listed soda and water bottles, plasticware, candy wrappers, chip bags, face masks, straws, pencils and string as the most common items they collected. They also found articles of clothing including an old t-shirt and a sweatshirt, along with a big piece of tarp, a duffle bag and a football.
When she asked her students why they think people litter, the answer seemed pretty unanimous: some people may be too lazy, or just don’t care. The children suggested different ideas on how to reduce waste – like installing more trash and recycling bins.
“I want you guys to start thinking about some solutions,” White encouraged her students.
Monica Kreber
kreberm@bcsdschools.net
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