IDS News

Planet Protectors Start Off Small
Posted Apr 25, 2007 at 03:25 PM
Updated Apr 25, 2007 at 03:27 PM

INDEPENDENT DAY SCHOOL KIDS CLEAN BEACH

By STEPHEN HAMMILL
shammill@mediageneral.com

“This was the best field trip ever!” said Jackson Risey, a first-grader from the Independent Day School-Corbett Campus in Carrollwood. “We cleaned the planet and got to see some crabs.”

In an effort to foster a bond between the environment and its youngest generation, Independent Day School-Corbett Campus (IDS) has started a new program, called the Planet Protectors.

Made up of first- and second-graders, the unit studies how humans change natural environments with their presence.

Last Wednesday, as part of the Planet Protectors, over 100 students, faculty and parents left IDS, located at 12015 Orange Grove Drive in Tampa, and took the ferry over to Caladesi Island for a beach clean-up. The field trip involved two main activities: cleaning the beach of any litter and determining which of the collected items could be recycled.

“The idea we’re trying to get across is that humans change the environment,” said Debi Brockmeyer. She teaches first- and second-graders in a multi-age classroom, what IDS calls its upper-primary division. Brockmeyer has been teaching at the Independent Day School-Corbett Campus for 26 years.

With the Planet Protectors, teachers at IDS focus on how humans impact the world around them, both good and bad. The faculty has been putting together the program over the past year.

“We worked together on our themes and units throughout the year,” Brockmeyer said.

“There’s a balance between the building that goes on around us and our environment,” said Jennifer Jones, a teacher who has been at IDS for the past eight years and is the coordinator of the school’s multi-age program. “With this we try to show that balance.”

Jones now has two sons at the school, one in the baby care program and another in kindergarten.

Upon arriving at the island, a park ranger welcomed the group; he talked to them about ongoing recycling efforts that are meant to help keep the beach clean. Once the presentation was completed, the students went out to pursue their various projects.

“We talked about the trash we picked up on the beach and how it hurts the animals and how we can recycle certain things to help the earth,” said first-grader Lea Baddoura.

“The children had to find out if the trash they found was bio-degradable, if it was recyclable,” Brockmeyer said. The group found less trash than they expected on the island.

“We’re happy to say it was a very clean beach,” Brockmeyer said.

“The island seemed like a perfect example of what we wanted to show,” Jones said. “It’s a good example of the balance that can be achieved.”
The teachers wanted to show the children examples of how an environment is changed by people, “and how that can be a good thing,” Jones said.

Brockmeyer added: “We wanted them to see what was right.”

The notion of positive reinforcement permeates the curriculum at IDS, and goes to the very heart of the school’s philosophy.

“I think it’s empowering to them – that there is something in their control,” Jones said. “Plus our school is very outdoor-oriented. We take them outside as much as we can.”

Brockmeyer said most children posses a keen interest in nature. By tapping into that interest when they’re young, the teachers can allow the natural sense of wonder to act as a driving force without the political entanglements that often plague adults whenever the environment is discussed.

“They’re a part of keeping the world,” she said.

On the island, the teachers asked the students to make what they called a reflection journal, where they recorded what natural objects they saw, and wrote about those things.

“It was a great thing to see those kids just reflecting on nature,” Brockmeyer said. “This trip fit in so well with that.”

After lunch, the students were asked to analyze their own trash and categorize it into what could and could not be recycled. Part of the philosophy is to bring the lesson full circle so the students will look for the signs in their own neighborhoods.

Now returned, the students will continue the project, analyzing the information they gathered from their trip.

The Planet Protectors runs on a two-year cycle and the school hopes to return to Caladesi Island the year after next.

Send Us Your Comments