Students of Eco-Schools celebrate Earth Day with contests, lessons and planting

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Nicole Villalba, left, and Chelsea Chen, 8th graders at Millburn Middle School, are members of the Peers Educating about Environmental Problems, or PEEP club. They gave a presentation on 'pre-cycling' during an Earth Week celebration.

(John Munson/The Star-Ledger)

MILLBURN — For young environmentalists, this week's Earth Day celebration is like Christmas, Halloween and the Fourth of July rolled into one. So it's no surprise students across New Jersey have been celebrating with a week of festivities, from planting gardens to school-wide contests — and lots of lessons in between.

At Millburn’s Middle School, members of the environmental club PEEPs (for Peers Educating about Environmental Problems) have been extending today’s holiday by presenting lunchtime demonstrations for a week through Thursday to show their classmates how to live more ecologically.

Last week’s lesson was on pre-cycling. Eighth-graders Chelsea Chen and Nicole Villalba used bottled water to encourage their friends to think about a product’s packaging — and the garbage it will generate — before they buy or consume it.

The students placed a five-gallon jug of water next to a case of 24 bottles, and asked students which one is better for the planet.

"We want to think about the amount of packaging something uses," Nicole said, pointing to the water jug. "This is a much better choice. It’s less packaging and easy to use."

The series of Earth Week presentations is part of the Millburn school’s effort to reach bronze level status in the National Wildlife Federation’s Eco-Schools program, teacher Stephen Chernoski said. An international effort to engage young people in environmental causes, Eco-School’s USA encourages students and teachers to integrate ecological concepts in school curriculum and student behavior.

"In this day and age, if we’re not bringing the lens of sustainability to the curriculum, we’re at risk for educating for un-sustainability," said Jennifer Dowd, coordinator of Eco-Schools USA for New Jersey Audubon. "This gets kids to look at their school buildings, their grounds and use scientific processes for change."

The Eco-Schools program is enjoying a growth spurt in the Garden State. There are 115 schools participating this year, compared to about 40 a year ago.

Dowd says the hands-on nature of the program, and its flexibility for grade level and school size, make it popular. "Eco-Schools is pedagogically sound and it gets kids outside for hands-on learning," she said. "They are taking curricula and making it real for kids."

Chernoski started the club this year and he said the benefits are already clear. "Convenience still trumps the message, but our recycling has gotten better," he said before the presentation. "If one-third of the (sixth-graders at this session) get the message, that would be phenomenal."

Club members do the school’s recycling every Wednesday, and they are collecting data on which grades and classroom are good at recycling, and which do better at turning off lights to conserve electricity. Next week they plan to share their data with the school.

Many schools are using Earth Day to spotlight their efforts, Dowd said.

Unity Charter School in Morristown will host a school-wide contest that pits different classes against each other to win the title of "Planet Protector." Jersey City’s P.S. 25 will take students outside to clean up the grounds and work in the garden.

Sustainability is at the core of school culture at Philip’s Academy Charter School in Newark, another Eco-School. Students recycle, compost and plant a rooftop garden. They operate a controlled-environment system that allows vegetables to grow in the cafeteria, which are then harvested and served in the salad bar, and they learn about solar energy from the solar panels on the roof.

Earth Day will be celebrated on Friday, at the end of a week of festivities. The theme is "Ways to green our school."

"Some of it’s planting, some is cleanup around the school; each grade is doing something," said Frank Mentesana, director of the school’s eco-spaces program.

That’s the beauty of the Eco-Schools program, Dowd said. It fits to each school’s capacity and experience, from advanced programs like Philip’s Academy to newbies like Millburn.

"It’s really fun to do this. I’ve always had a passion about nature," Nicole said.

"We’re trying to make it fun," Chelsea added. "So (students) get the point but don’t think it’s boring."

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