4th Graders Teaching About Storm Water Runoff

Student-Built Models Help Teach Kindergarteners (and Kori) About Pollution and Storm Water Runoff

Painting the Eco-Casita Mural June 2012

Vanessa's Class Working to Keep Trash Out of the Waterways

   



To quote Josh:  "Cardboard on the sidewalk!  Not on my watch."

A GREEN ROOF MODEL: by Elissa's fourth graders

This  model shows how much rain water a greenroof can keep from entering the water treatment plants.
And it's fun, too!

ECO-SAUSAGE by Dolores' fourth graders

Keeping pollution out of the drains and making the world a bit greener:  THE ECO SAUSAGE

A Green Roof: Song and lyrics by Jylene, Jania, Ava

A roof that has plants on it...
The plants take the water in...
When it rains.

It helps the environment.

Chorus:  Air Quality. CO2 taken out the air.
Growing food.  Help the air stay cool.

If you don't have a green roof you'll start to cry
You'll shatter the Earth
And the animals will die.

That's why everyone should try...
So get a GREENROOF.

Wild Weather and Climate Change

• By Theo Gold
• Every day we burn oil, gas and coal.
• We burn them to get electricity power the trains and our homes. We use gas, which is made from oil, to power cars, motorbikes, and trucks.
• When we burn the fuels they release carbon. When the carbon is burned  it joins oxygen, and we get carbon dioxide (CO2).
• Around earth’s atmosphere there is a layer of CO2.
• That CO2 gets there by floating up from earth
• from the fuels we burn. When the sun shines down on earth it reflects off the ground and hits the CO2 shield. The shield makes it bounce back to earth. When it hits the shield, not all of the heat can escape, this is called the GREEN HOUSE EFEECT.

So back at earth we keep using all these fuels. When we drive a car we burn fuels, to make the car we burn fuels and to get the parts to make it we burn fuels. So we just made a lot of CO2 just now and the more the worse. “Why?” you ask. Well the more CO2 we make the thicker it gets in the atmosphere, and the thicker it gets the less heat escapes the green house effect. When less heat escapes the green house the more it bounces back to earth which causes more extreme weather.

“How?” oh that’s easy. For tornadoes to form they need to be over a hot surface so they would usually happen at the end of summer when the ground is all hot. Now they can form in earlier in the year because the ground is hotter… and the ground is hotter because… because less heat from the sun is escaping from the atmosphere which heats up the earth year round.