Linwood Middle School in North Brunswick celebrated Earth Day with several activities last week.
JENNIFER AMATO Students in Denise Petraco’s class at Linwood Middle School in North Brunswick decorated their classroom to represent the rain forest during the school’s Earth Day activities last week. Sixth-grade students have been participating in the “Water Watch” program, presented by interns from the New Jersey Community Water Watch program through Cook College at Rutgers University.
For four consecutive Wednesdays, Anthony Lucidi and Matt Minder focused on lessons surrounding water quality issues.
Lucidi said the nearby Raritan River is the 14th most polluted river in the nation, and that 1.2 million people get their drinking water from the Raritan despite it having 200 toxic waste sites along its banks.
Therefore, the interns sought to teach the Linwood students about pollution and about how they can get involved to improve the environment.
During the first class, renewable and nonrenewable resources were discussed.
PHOTOS BY SCOTT FRIEDMAN Above: Youngsters play under a parachute during the Earth Day celebration at Reichler Park, South Brunswick, on Sunday. Above right: Emily Saleh (l-r), Preethi Kamath and Brittnay Lewis, of South Brunswick Girl Scout Troop 81844, help secure a pink dogwood tree that was planted in memory of the late South Brunswick High School student Kylie Pinheiro during the Earth Day celebration. The students were separated into five generations and at first, the first generation was allowed to take as much popcorn as they wanted, which eventually dwindled down to nothing, to show that if older generations abuse resources, younger generations will not be left with anything if the resource is nonrenewable, such as with fossil fuels.
On the other hand, if generations are allowed to take popcorn and then the resources are replenished with half of the original amount, it shows that even renewable resources can deplete in quantity.
“Just because it’s renewable doesn’t mean it’s indefinite,” Minder said.
During the second class, the water cycle was elaborated upon: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, transpiration and surface runoff.
Each table in the classroom was set up as a different station, such as a stream, ocean, glacier, cloud, plant or animal. Students rolled a die and moved to a corresponding location. For example, a drop of water could stay in the ocean with other countless droplets, or it could evaporate and fall onto a plant, or it could be drunk by an animal that then urinates and returns it back into the groundwater.
“The point of the activity is to show that the water cycle isn’t the same every time,” Minder said.
During the third class, the Cook students spoke of water pollution. By creating the town of Riverside, the students were separated into environmental groups, concerned parents, workers unions, corporation owners and town council representatives to discuss how to handle a factory chemical leak, based on everyone’s varying interests in the community.
The culmination was on April 22. Lucidi spoke of a cleanup of the Raritan on April 18, during which hundreds of volunteers helped clean the banks of the river.
PHOTO COURTESY OF JAMIE JUHASZ Abigail Fisch (l-r), Gabrielle McLean, Alexandra McLean, Michala Glassman, Sarah Sloan and Jennifer Juhasz, members of the third-grade Brownie Troop 80602 in South Brunswick, recently helped with the township’s Earth Day cleanup. The freshman said beer cans, glass bottles, Red Bull cans, spraypaint cans, a vehicle axle, street signs, exhaust pipes, a bowling ball, a lawn chair, flip-flops, a tarp, tires, Styrofoam, metal artwork and plastic shopping bags were found over about a four-hour span.
“There were really crazy things out there; anything you could imagine,” Lucidi said, “because people are careless and people don’t care.
“The whole point is to get you guys to realize what you can do,” he continued. ‘It really makes you feel good at the end of the day to know what a difference you made.”
In addition, Denise Petraco’s classroom was turned into a simulated rain forest for Earth Week, and tours were offered to fellow science classes. Thirty-five students decorated the classroom and researched facts about the rainforest and the importance of conserving it.
There was a “Go Green” poster contest where renewable and recyclable materials were used. Students participated in a buslot cleaning project, Jessica Cirafesi’s students did plantings in the schoolyard and SEAL students sold T-shirts to benefit various causes. Also, on Earth Day, students were asked to wear green and donate $1 to adopt a lion from the Grand Canyon.
Contact Jennifer Amato at