Third graders Maya Jones, Emily Swan, and Kayla Melcher help Fairmount Park's Volunteer Coordinator David Bower plant trees and ferns

Springside School for Girls in Philadelphia has an active academic program for students from Kindergarten through twelveth grade, but their list of Earth Day activities this year looks like something a lot more advanced!

Here’s just a partial list of their Earth Day activities—

· Elementary students planted 40 native trees and ferns and did trail cleanup work in Fairmount Park with Volunteer Coordinator David Bower in the section of the Wissahickon Creek adjacent to the school;

· Fifth grader Natalie Kapp took second place in the Philadelphia Water Department’s “Clean Water Begins and Ends with You” drawing contest;

· Eighth grade students are building a miniature solar-powered car and focusing class time on energy production and climate change;

· Ninth grader Natalie Smith’s Science Fair Research Project on global warming won first place and is going to the state competition in May; and

· Students in Environmental Science pick an environmental issue and do research on that issue over the entire semester as part of the Young Naturalist Awards Program.

Springdale was also the first school in the city to recycle all paper, plastic, glass, metal and cardboard under a program sponsored by RecycleBank. Weekly recycling efforts have resulted in recycling over 75 tons of material.

For more information, contact Gretchen Harrison, Springdale School, 215-247-7200 x 7131 or send email to: gharrison@springside.org .

4/27/2007