Eighth grade science students at D.H.H. Lengel Middle School in Pottsville, Pennsylvania want you to think more seriously about recycling. Lisa M. Doyle, eighth grade science teacher, decided to incorporate a last-minute, real world lesson on recycling at the end of a chapter on natural resources. “It seems that we are becoming more and more ‘test-driven’ and many teachers forget to expose their students to what is going on in the real world today. They need to be aware of what is going to impact them in the future,” Doyle said. The lesson was intended to last for one day, but because of such a positive response and in-depth discussion from her students, it ultimately ended up lasting for almost two weeks. Students discussed many of the global environmental concerns, including resource use, recycling, and pollution. Doyle found this as the perfect opportunity to create a dramatic display in her classroom, the aluminum can everGREEN tree, to demonstrate the importance of recycling. “I challenged them to bring in as many empty soda cans as they possibly could. This was such a last minute idea, I really wasn’t sure if we could pull it off,” she said. The empty cans started pouring in the following day and thanks to students, parents, faculty and staff at the Lengel Middle School, within two days they quickly reached their goal of 400 cans. A day later, the tree was built and displayed in the hallway with messages from students on why they think recycling is important. “I think the past two weeks have really served as an eye-opener for them,” Doyle said. “It is certainly not something that is going to change the world, but I know for a fact that my eighth grade classes will be thinking twice next time they go to throw something away. It is little things like this that when put together, will end up changing the world some day. I couldn’t be more proud of them."
Go green this holiday with aluminum EverGREEN Trees
