Marine Environmental Educator Visits Third Grade Science

GFS alumni David Hayward (pictured left), class of 1968, is a U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary volunteer. His mission is to educate citizens about ways to help improve the health of our waterways. Third grade students chose water as their environmental action project this year and invited Mr. Hayward to visit and share his experience.

Students were fully engaged as they learned the story of Inky the baby pygmy sperm whale who was beached due to a stomach full of plastic. Coast Guard volunteers, among many others, helped to rescue and save Inky from the health issues caused by human litter. Inky's luck changed for the better. What about the other wildlife affected by litter?

How can we make a difference? There are many ways to help. Let's start with something simple, like using reusable bags for shopping and carrying personal items.

Did you know that...

• About 750 billion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year? Less than 1% of those bags are recycled.
• The rest of those bags end up in landfills or as litter in every ocean on our planet.
  
• Plastic bags photodegrade (not biodegrade) into smaller toxic polymers which contaminate water and soil.
• If you use a reusable cloth bag, you save 6 plastic bags per week on average. That's 24 bags per month. 288 bags per year. 22,176 in an average lifetime.
  
• If just 1 person in 5 did this we would save 1,330,560,000,000 plastic bags.

Some good news...

• China and Bangladesh have banned plastic bags.
• Ireland now charges consumers for plastic bags.
• San Francisco has banned plastic bags. Oakland and Boston are considering bans.

and by the way...

• Plastic bags are made from oil
• Reducing plastic bags decreases our dependence on foreign oil
• China will save 37 million barrels of oil each year because of their ban on plastic bags!
  

There are so many ways our community can make a difference. Stop using plastic water bottles for the same reasons listed above. GFS hasn't missed them since we stopped buying them 2 years ago!

Thank you to Mr. Hayward for volunteering to make a difference by educating people and empowering them to feel like they CAN make a difference. Every little effort helps.

A Special Thank You to our Parent Volunteers!

We would not have been as successful with our program without the help of the following EAC parents who donated their time:

Indre Page
Barbara Overholser
Emily Daeschler
Madhuri Malkani
Sue Smith
Amina Loder
Tema Esberg
Judy McCoubrey
Jeanette Pailas

Thank you... thank you... thank you!!!

By Eamon M

First we were wondering what our project was going to be for this year's EAC. Matthew and I came up with an idea. Karen was talking about a machine that opened the windows in the Sharpless building green house based on the temperature so the plants don’t dry. Sadly it broke. Matthew and I came up with an idea (the same idea as Cassie and Maya) to raise money to fix the machine. Then the oil spill happened, so Karen asked if we wanted to raise money to help clean up the oil spill. We raised $277.08 with a lemonade stand and donations.

In the 4th grade EAC we have done a lot, we have picked up litter, we have done a lemonade sale raising $277.08 in donations and selling lemonade. One of are main ideas are to convince people to compost, pick up litter and much more things.



Lily Z.

This is the last EAC of the year!! I wish we could have more time. The weeks went by so fast. From are lemonade stand we raised $277.08. we all put a lot of effort in to this. I think EAC is a great idea to get involved and it was fun. When I heard this was the last time I would be going to 4th grade EAC I was SO UPSET

-Caroline K

In our 4th grade environmental action club we raised $277.08 for the Gulf of Mexico to help clean the oil out and save the animals that were affected during the leak. We had a lemonade committee which was made up of five or six students who ran the committee. Posters were made and we told our family and friends. Our people that helped us were supporting. We would like to thank all the parents that helped us during our time and the people that bought our lemonade we couldn't have done it with out them. We all can make a difference in the world. I think we all are looking forward to 5th grade environmental action club.

By: TARYN

This is the last E.A.C. meeting,so sad! we have had so much fun! Who knew helping the environment could be exciting! and I'm almost sure that most of us are going to 5th grade E.A.C!

We made 277.8 dollars and are proud of it! The money will be going to the oil spill off the gulf

of Mexico. We have also been making a petition against off shore drilling, and most of our parents have signed.

So...Good bye

-4th grade E.A.C.

Cassie.C.