IMAGINE THIS - powering your hair dryer or radio while riding a bicycle! Farfetched? Not really, as the 4th-6th grade students at Oak Lane Day School recently discovered in science class. As explained by science teacher Dottie Baumgarten, "the science curriculum this fall, which is focusing on sustainability, is geared towards having the students choose something that impacts their environment in a positive way."
Mrs. Baumgarten is using material from Earth Force, an organization that supports teachers as they teach children about the environment, and it involves a stepwise progression through the curriculum. The students began by inventorying the environmental topics that are currently impacting the community, such as tree planting, composting, native plants, reducing trash, recycling, etc., and they learned about each issue by surveying teachers, staff and students within Oak Lane Day School, as well as interviewing experts in the larger community, such as Susan Curry, who is head of the Environmental Advisory Committee of Ambler, and works with Pennypack Farm. She also helped set up Oak Lane's sustainable garden. Through this process, the Oak Lane students ultimately chose energy as the topic on which to focus.
The students' initial investigations taught them that the way we traditionally use energy hurts our environment, and that using alternative sources of energy is more earth friendly and responsible. To help demonstrate to her students how energy can be produced without any negative byproducts, Mrs. Baumgarten brought a generator into the science class, in which the energy of motion was turned into electricity. The design was a frame that held a bicycle, with the bicycle wheel connected to a generator which in turn was hooked up by wires to a board. On the board were three incandescent light bulbs and three fluorescent light bulbs controlled by an on/off switch. In addition, a hairdryer, fan and radio could also be plugged in and powered from the board. The 4th, 5th and 6th grade students learned several things from their interactions with the bicycle/generator. First, they discovered that they were actually making electricity that could be used to run a hairdryer or power electric lights. They also determined that fluorescent bulbs require less energy than incandescent bulbs. Mrs. Baumgarten led them to this conclusion by turning on the fluorescent bulbs one by one, until all three were lit, while a student pedaled the bicycle. Then she turned the three lights off and immediately turned on all three incandescent light bulbs, at which time the biker felt as if he or she had suddenly hit a wall! Finally, the students compared the energy requirements of the fan versus the hairdryer, which got them thinking about energy usage in their own lives, and ways they could help conserve energy, such as towel drying their hair, or using fans in the summer instead of air conditioners when feasible. They also wanted to know if the school used florescent lights, so they went to Oak Lane Head of School, Karl Welsh, who informed them that most of the school's lights were fluorescent and any that weren't, were replaced as they burned out.
This activity, in which the children learn through experimentation and investigation, question, form theories, and come to conclusions that result in new understanding, is the cornerstone of the way teaching and learning occurs at Oak Lane Day School. As is our philosophy, "children see relevance in their learning, develop a deeper sense of understanding, and truly possess their own knowledge." In addition, as stated by science teacher Dottie Baumgarten, "The exciting thing is that the bicycle/generator and the Earth Force curriculum is not standing alone, but is part of a larger, community wide sustainability effort." Here at Oak Lane, we all, from the youngest to the oldest, have endorsed and embraced this effort as a way of life, and are each doing our part, large or small, to help be responsible stewards of our environment.
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