By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Taking a cue from the federal government, the Ben Franklin Elementary School has set up its own version the Environmental Protection Agency.
Students at the grades pre-K to 3 school are monitoring their own use of energy and focusing on recycling from turning off the lights when they leave the classroom to recycling paper and milk cartons.
The idea for a student-run EPA grew out of Principal Christopher Turnbull’s trip to Taiwan last spring. He was part of a delegation from Sustainable Jersey that sought to share best practices on climate and energy issues with their Taiwanese counterparts.
”If you want to engage the students, you have to give them something that is real,” Mr. Turnbull said. “Sustainability is a big issue today, and by the time they become adults, some of these topics will be world issues.”
”We want to give the students an opportunity to use real world situations to learn and become world leaders (in sustainability). The focus is to make it tangible. It is so abstract. We try to involve them in activities,” the principal said.
That’s why the student version of the EPA was set up, he said. The students and staff talked about the “real EPA” and what could be done with a Ben Franklin School EPA, he said, adding that the discussion included what is meant by the “environment” and how it could be protected.
The school EPA consists of a committee of teachers and students. Each classroom has two student representatives to the EPA who act as liaisons between their classroom and Mr. Turnbull.
”The EPA representatives bring ideas and information forward. They spearhead certain things, and the teachers help to make sure their ideas move forward and they do things that are worthwhile,” he said.
Mr. Turnbull pointed to the school’s pledge, in which the students promise to save energy by turning off the lights, computers and other electronic items when they are not in use; recycling whatever they can, such as paper, cans and bottles; and not polluting the water.
The kindergarten students focus on reduce, re-use and recycle, while the first-graders are concerned with water conservation and water quality. They have begun to study a stream near the school, he said.
The second-graders are in charge of the paper recycling program, he said. They go from classroom to classroom, collecting paper and putting it in a bin that they hand over to the school custodian.
They also collect milk cartons in the cafeteria, rinse them out and crush them, Mr. Turnbull said. They fill about 14 of the yellow Mercer County recycling program containers every month, he said, adding they can see the results of their work.
In the third grade, the students have zeroed in on energy conservation, he said. They are working on different campaigns to encourage people to turn off the lights when they leave the room. They are also investigating power strips, so that one switch will turn off all of the computers in the classroom.
The third-graders are learning about the different methods to generate electricity, he said, adding that they have learned that electricity “is not something that appears when you turn on the switch.” The children are old enough to understand the difference between renewable and non-renewable energy sources, he added.
”This is a young process. We are only four months into (the student EPA). We may be in the infancy stage, but at least we are exposing them to some ideas. We want to keep examining what we do and make sure it becomes a part of what we do,” he said.

