MILLSTONE – After helping to spread awareness about an invasive plant species in their community and winning an international competition, a group of students from the Millstone Township K-8 School District are now seeking to take their project statewide.
Pupils at the Millstone Township Middle School and the Millstone Township Elementary School who call themselves the Phearless Phragmites Phighters are continuing their work on a project to spread awareness of Phragmites australis, an invasive plant species.
Phragmites australis, according to teacher and club adviser Beth Topinka, can reach 18 feet in height. The plant grows in thick patches with dense root systems that spread and push out native plants and animals.
The plant is difficult to remove once it has become established in an area. It harms diversity in ecosystems, does not provide a food source for native animals, interferes with marsh food webs, affects the supply of water needed by plants and animals, and produces seed tops that can bother individuals with grass allergies, according to Topinka.
In 2016 and 2017, the students identified locations in Millstone Township where Phragmites australis was growing. Their work was recognized by the Township Committee and the Environmental Commission. The pupils were later invited to compete in the Future Problem Solvers International Conference’s Junior Team Division for Environmental Concerns in Wisconsin, where they placed first.
As part of their next project to spread awareness of the invasive plant across the state, fifth grade and sixth grade students Ethan Bailey, Rafferty Burden, James Chen, Anna DePinho, Evangeline Huey, Gianna Iannaccone, Rachel Glantzberg, Thomas Maltese and Jai Patel presented information to 27 environmental experts at the annual conference of the Alliance for New Jersey Environmental Education (ANJEE) in Princeton on Jan. 19.
According to Anna, Evangeline and Thomas, their new project is called “InPhorming Phriends to Phurther Phight Phragmites.” The pupils are planning to create an eBook for younger children and a virtual reality (VR) experience for older students.
For the eBook, the pupils are developing a story and characters and have consulted literacy expert Stephanie Dunk. For the VR experience, they have consulted drone operator Christopher Johnston and photographer Doreen Laskiewicz.
Laskiewicz and Johnston “taught us how to create panorama images for our VR and how a drone can capture aerial shots,” Anna, Evangeline and Thomas wrote in a press release. “We are learning how to code the VR activities using Blockly in the CoSpaces VR-creation program.”
The students traveled to the nearby Assunpink Wildlife Management Area to explore the edge of the wetlands and to photograph panorama images for the VR experience.
At the ANJEE conference, 15 educators volunteered to test the eBook and VR prototypes and will provide feedback, according to Anna.