“How many of you think this is made out of old soda bottles and milk jugs?” asked Debbie Jackson, a state Department of Environmental Conservation employee, to a small group of elementary children.
Jackson was holding up a polyester T-shirt for the students to see while teaching them about the importance of recycling. None of the children believed the cloth before them had once been plastic reused to create something they wear everyday.
Each year since 1995, groups of elementary students from schools throughout the Capital District have been brought to the Five Rivers Environmental Education Center in Delmar to participate in a conservation field day. The entire program is three days long and about 600 students attend the event over that time.
“We have about 14 field stations and they are led by bona fide field experts,” said Five Rivers Executive Director Craig Thompson. “These are the people who fight the forest fires, who remediate oil spills, who monitor air and water quality (for the state). The kids are going to these stations and learning right from them.”
Thompson said the event provides a great opportunity to showcase the state’s environmental and resource conservation programs with students and educators. Schools apply annually to participate in the free event and some are turned away because of its popularity.
The program is a combination of career exploration and educational opportunity.
John Sheppard, an environmental program specialist with the DEC, taught students about air quality and how to help preserve it. The groups were taught the definition of air pollution and where it comes from, with demonstrations and free trading cards representing air pollution’s “dirty dozen” offenders.
The characters each represent a dangerous pollutant and have names like Druscilla de Spilla for the human carcinogen benzene, or H.G. “Slick” Grey for the toxic metal mercury. Each card describes the pollutant, why it is dangerous and how it can be released into the environment.
“We teach them about alternative energy sources, and we also teach them enough information so they can go home and remember to do things around the house like turn off lights and wear a sweater when it’s cold instead of turning up the heat,” Sheppard said.
“We just want to get our environmental message out and teach them the three ‘Rs’ of conservation — reduce, reuse, recycle,” said Thompson.
Gary Feinland, a program specialist who taught the kids about composting through a worm demonstration, said reaching students at a young age is important because one of the best ways to reach parents is through their children.
“Secondly, once kids learn this stuff at such a young age it becomes just a fact to them and becomes a part of who they are,” he said. “They will likely remember it more and understand the importance of taking these measures for the rest of their lives.”
One of the children’s favorite stations was the one manned by DEC Senior Wildlife Biologist Karl Parker. Although no live animals were shown, the students were able to handle snake skins, animal pelts and creatures in jars. The children are taught ways to identify wildlife, how the DEC tracks wildlife throughout the state and the types of animals native to New York.
“There’s a limit to what you can tell second graders,” Parker said. “You have to keep it really basic or they will lose interest. My station is really a self-explorative exhibit.”
Thompson said each event gets bigger and better.
“We really just want to spark their interest in helping improve the world for future generations,” he said.
