Board member delivers delicious lesson on landfills?
LEVITTOWN - Students at Manor Elementary School ate trash June 6.
That’s not a condemnation of the school’s food service, just a quick description of a presentation put on by Pennsbury School Board member and environmental specialist Gary Sanderson.
Sanderson, who works with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) led a program aimed at educating students about what happens to trash, how important clean water is and how the two are connected.
After a 15-minute Power Point presentation during which he prodded the students with questions about water usage, including “How much water does it take to make one order of fries at McDonald’s?” (four gallons), “How much water does it take for a chicken to produce one egg?” (120 gallons) and “How much water to raise one chicken?” (400 gallons), Sanderson had the room’s attention.
“The point is, we need plenty of clean water to survive,” Sanderson said, before asking the question that would tie the presentation’s two topics together.
“Each person produces about 4 pounds of garbage a day,” Sanderson told the class. “When you throw stuff out, what happens to it?” Sanderson stressed the importance of putting trash in its proper place, as well as taking proper care of pets’ waste.
“Would you like to drink your neighbor’s dog’s doo-doo?” The question drew a loud mix of laugh- ter and screams, but provided the perfect segue into the tangible portion of the afternoon. Teachers handed out bags whose contents looked like a pretty good Halloween haul. But in actuality, each one represented a ODnGfiOO.
Sanderson pointed out that a ORCDO ODnGfiOO WHDW sits very close to the Delaware River makes it all the more important to ensure the ODnGfiOO LV SrRSerly maintained.
The board member, who said he’s been involved with protecting water for 28 years, had a swatch of each materLDO IrRP wHLCH WHH ODnGfiOOV’ VLx-ODyHr OLnHrV DrH made, but surely would’ve lost kids’ interest if he did nothing more than pass that around. Instead, he had them create their own liner – out of everyday kids’ products like graham crackers, cookies, marshmallows and fruit roll ups.
“This is as much fun as I’ve ever had in school,” exclaimed Dominic Wisen as he applied a layer of ODnGfiOO HH wRuOG VRRn CRnVuPH.
Sanderson thought up this idea years ago and brought it to the powers that be at the NJDEP, who fund the presentation. He also came up with which sweet treat would represent which layer of liner.
2nH Ey RnH, WHH VWuGHnWV CRnVWruCWHG WHHLr ODnGfiOOV in a plastic bowl. Graham crackers represented the soil, mini marshmallows, fruit roll ups and other sugary snacks stood for things like high-density polyethylene. The point of the exercise wasn’t to teach the kids about fancy terms for plastic insulation, it was to teach them how much work goes into keeping everyday trash away from our drinking and bathing water.
Eventually, the layers were piled inside the bowls and the kids dumped “garbage” on top. Trash never tasted so good. The kids poured pudding and cookLHV DnG CDnGy Rn WRS RI WHH ODnGfiOO OLnHr – DnG WHHn got down to devouring their creations.
Sanderson used a lot of fancy terms with the children, but there would be no quiz on this day. No doubt the kids learned about the importance of keeping water clean and putting trash in its proper place. They also learned, for one 45-minute class at least, how delicious garbage can be.