Earth is one planet with many working aspects to it. Young SCVi Charter School students learned from their peers on Friday a few ways that they can lend a hand in Earth conservation efforts at their Earth Day Celebration.
Outside, absorbing all of the sunlight, were booth after booth filled with education and interactive activities.
The booths were run by older learners of SCVi to help the younger ones learn about the history and importance of Earth Day.
“I love that it’s older learners helping to convey this information to the younger learners,” said parent Tanya Peterson. “It’s, in a lot of ways, effective learning from older peers that you look up to, kind of a positive peer pressure effect.”
The booths focused on topics such as how to be an Earth hero, human impacts on the planet, bees and other pollinators, adopting a plant, gardening, biodegradable recycling and upcycling art.
Young learners engaged in interactive activities to further grasp the concept. While struggling to remove oil out of a bin of water that represented the ocean, an older learner showed how dish soap dissipated the oil.
Immediately the younger learners began to do the same, as well as collecting the oil with spoons and dumping it away in a separate container.
“I really liked that it’s very like hands-on, so they get to see what it is to do, like Earth and recycling and all that stuff,” said parent Fabiola Lizaola, “and you know how we can take care of it. It’s nice that they get to just physically, you know not just read about it or see it, but they actually get involved in it.”
Learners were able to sort trash, paint water bottles, look at flowers through a microscope and get their hands dirty by potting their own plant.
SCVi learner Sarah Mracek started her own garden in eighth grade with two friends as a passion project. As she approached graduation, she decided to stick with her tomato garden for her community action service project.
Mracek was unable to attend the Earth Day Celebration due to a college tour, but her friends Chloe Andaya and Sam Fickett continued its legacy at the celebration.
“I feel like that’s really important to me, because as I’m graduating so soon, I want to leave a really important legacy to everybody and I’m also really happy to be sharing my friend’s service project,” said Fickett. “I’m super passionate about the Earth and the environment. It’s something I care so much about. I feel like teaching all the younger learners about the Earth is so important, especially because of climate change in the environment. It’s so cute to see how they all love gardening and growing stuff.”
Young learners walked up to their booth, proudly showing Andaya and Fickett their new plants.
Andaya said that one of the most important parts of growing a garden is making sure it is a plant you enjoy.
Young learners grabbed colored popsicle sticks and dropped them into containers, voting for their favorite vegetable. Andaya and Fickett smiled with hopes that one day the young learners have a garden of their own.
