Community Middle School students take on global warming
By: Nick Norlen
PLAINSBORO If the spilled test tubes and errant balloons were any indication, science can get messy.
And for middle-schoolers, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
This week, Community Middle School seventh-graders on Team 7C participated in a three-day event to learn about global warming, including a Tuesday viewing of "An Inconvenient Truth," the documentary of former Vice President Al Gore’s campaign to increase awareness of the issue.
The next day, students were able to choose among a variety of activities, including developing skits, making posters, learning how to write to newspapers or members of Congress, and doing science experiments.
If you thought few would take the science route, you made an incorrect hypothesis.
Student Jordan Richardson said it was an easy decision.
"I love science," she said. "It’s really interesting to find out what we as kids can do to help the global warming problem. Because we watched "An Inconvenient Truth" and it was all touching and stuff. So it got me thinking that if I can convince our parents to buy a hybrid or something, it would at least make a little bit of a difference and influence others to help stop global warming."
Seventh-grader David Burke said he was also eager to hit the lab after seeing the film.
"We got really motivated to start learning about global warming and things we could do to stop the effects of global warming. So we started to do this experiment," he said. "We’re doing it to figure out what causes the carbon dioxide levels to go up and the greenhouse gases so that we can see how we can fix these issues."
So with a funnel and some balloons and protective goggles and gloves, of course the students set out to measure carbon dioxide emissions from Ms. Baner’s car.
Back in the classroom, students compared the samples from the car with air, vinegar, baking soda and their own breath.
Test tubes turned yellow, blue and green as students experimented with different mixtures.
David said he loves that kind of stuff.
"Experiments in this class are always fun," he said.
Perhaps that’s why he joined classmates Nick Chiarolanzio, Jamal Wilcox and A.J. Carnevale in skipping lunch during an earlier period to figure out the best way to test the samples.
School Science Supervisor Miriam Robin said such interest is a testament to seventh-grade science teacher Virginia Baner’s approach.
"It’s impressive," she said. "To have kids who will take this seriously and enter into it in this spirit with teachers who are willing to do it is wonderful."
Ms. Baner said the students just love to get hands-on.
"They totally do," she said. "The kids that chose this group they want to be here. This is their top choice to do the experiments."
Jamal said he knew it would fun.
"We’re learning as well as being active," he said. "So it’s more fun."
Nick said it a different way.
"I like working with chemicals and my hands because in all the other subjects, it’s always like paper and pencil," he said.
David agreed.
"More people get into it when you’re actually doing something," he said. "When you’re sitting down taking notes, it’s like, ‘Whatever.’"

