CLARK, NJ — Teacher Anthony Venezia’s environmental science classes at Arthur L. Johnson High School recently participated in an Environmental Clean-Up Project. Each student was given a card with a possible role – farmer, mechanic, factory owner, family on a picnic, land developer, homeowner – and a substance meant to represent a pollutant, e.g., salt = fertilizer runoff; vegetable oil = used motor oil; phosphate-based detergent powder = factor waste; bits of trash = picnic waste; sand, dirt, and rocks = soil erosion from a job site; food coloring = excess lawn pesticide. Each of them had to read out what was on their cards, which revealed that they were adding their pollutants to a nearby lake because they were either unaware of the danger or were negligent.
Venezia filled a large aquarium halfway with water and told them to add their pollutants to the water with one caveat: they were allowed to add as little or as much of their pollutants as they wanted. As a result, the “lakes” became sludge. Students were then presented with the task of cleaning the lake and working to prevent the damage from ever happening again.
To accomplish this, students broke into groups based on their unique skills. Roles consisted of public advocates that made signs to warn off further polluters and educate the public. Lawmakers drafted a new bill for the fictional town that defined pollution, set limits on pollutants, created fines for breaking these limits and incentives for compliance and even established a task force to monitor water quality and enforce the rules. The scientists constructed crude filters out of cups, rocks, sand and gravel that were able to filter out larger solids from the polluted water. Those in the cleanup crew that brought polluted samples to the scientists, removed the trash and performed mild chemical treatment.
According to Venezia, “In the end, the groups were able to filter out 85% of the dissolved debris and reduce the opacity from 100% to approximately 45-50%. The purpose was to show them that, even with minimal training, they could accomplish big things by simply working together. I look forward to accomplishing larger tasks like these with my students again in the future!”
Photos Courtesy of Christine Casale Broski
