“Today we’re talking about a big word…Sustainability! Say it with me,” said Lower School Teacher Jes Thies. “Who thinks it has something to do with the Earth? Raise your hand!”
Several hands in the sea of Class 1 students before her were raised high. “It means keeping the Earth clean and healthy,” one student offered. Another noted that sustainability includes reusing and recycling.
This important word, Ms. Thies explained, encompasses all that you can do to take care of our planet. “We are sustainable so that we can continue to enjoy the beauty and resources in our world and provide for those who come after us,” she said.
To underscore this notion, Ms. Theis played a quick video that highlighted ways that students can be sustainable in their daily lives. The characters in the video were shown saving energy by turning off lights, replacing plastic bags with reusable options, and avoiding water waste by turning faucets off.
In the fall, Class 1 visited Brooklyn Grange, the leading rooftop farming and intensive green roofing business in the United States. Brooklyn Grange describes there work this way: “[Our] purpose is to restore the connection between people and the natural world. We create meaningful livelihood opportunities and steward green spaces in the built environment to foster more livable and climate-adapted cities.”
“Remember what you saw at the urban farm in Brooklyn?” prompted Ms. Thies. “They had a composting section – just like all of you!” (In science, Class 1 students engage in a unit about worms to learn the important function they play in helping matter decompose.)
Class 1 students learn all about the concept of community through their social studies curriculum and even construct their own 3D model at the end of the year. The girls observe all different examples of community and focus on three main pillars when physically building their own: innovation, equity and sustainability.
Today, the students would engage solely with sustainability and rotate through four stations in mixed class groupings to further ignite their creativity and ideas.
During this daylong exploration, the girls created a community mural/map of the city in a collage style, built solar and wind panels, created rooftop gardens and window boxes, and constructed transportation signage (subway signs and bus stops)—all using recycled materials. Of course, learning was aplenty along the way. While constructing the solar and wind panels, for example, the first graders discussed other energy sources like hydropower and geothermal energy.
The students will now take this knowledge and decide how to incorporate sustainable options in their own community. We can’t wait to see the culmination of their work in late May!
Browse photos HERE.