THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 28, 1995 TAG: 9504260132
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 17 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
About 160 students gathered at Waters Middle School Friday to mark the finale of a semesterlong environmental awareness project while celebrating Earth Day.
The project, which focused on the Chesapeake Bay and the preservation of its resources, teamed 40 Waters Middle School students with 120 second-graders from Simonsdale Elementary School.
The older students took on the role of teachers, first learning all they could about preserving the Bay and then passing their knowledge on to the second-graders.
They spent several mornings at Simonsdale, demonstrating water-testing apparatus and a video microscope and using skits and stories to teach the younger children the effects of pollution on the Bay and its wildlife.
A cleanup along the City Park shoreline added a practical lesson in pollution control for all the participants.
On Friday, Thomas Bellamy and Shawn Ratcliff, both seventh-graders, eagerly volunteered their labor for the highlight of the program - burying a homemade time capsule.
The capsule, created from two clear plastic soda bottles and sealed with duct tape, contained the national conservation pledge that had been signed by students, current issues of Jet and Entertainment Weekly, a poster of Michael Jordan and notes from children involved in the project - ``things that mean something to us,'' Shawn said.
The students plan to dig up the capsule in the year 2000 when the seventh-graders are seniors and the second-graders are in the seventh grade.
"We learned that if each generation will teach the next generation then the earth will be a better place," Thomas said.
Cathy Roberts, a Waters teacher and one of the project coordinators, concluded the Earth Day celebration with the national conservation pledge:
"I pledge to protect and conserve the national resources of America. I promise to educate future generations so they may become caretakers of our water, air, land, and wildlife."
"I think we have done pretty well on all of that this year," Roberts said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by PHYLLIS SPEIDELL
Thomas Bellamy, left, and Shawn Ratcliff prepare to bury a time
capsule at Waters Middle School during an Earth Day celebration.
by CNB