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Charlotte Amalie
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Students Create Environmental Displays for Earth Day

April 22, 2009 — Addelita Cancryn Junior High School students honored Earth Day on Wednesday by transforming the school library into a mini-environmental station.
The room burst with the energy of the students' efforts.
"What is our most valuable natural resource?" asked science teacher Anna Francis.
She smiled indulgently.
"You are all natural resources," Francis said. "Love your earth, cherish yourself and protect yourself just like you do the earth."
The students watched intently as Francis showed a PowerPoint presentation detailing the students' work throughout the year in planting and maintaining a garden on the school's campus.
Francis' environmental science students worked to create the exhibits alongside the Environmental Rangers, a group of students Francis leads in learning about the territory's fragile marine and land environments.
"Why is guinea grass important?' Francis asked.
A hand goes up.
"Because it produces chlorophyl."
"Right."
"And why is grass important in a garden?"
"Because, when it's hot, it will keep moisture in the soil."
Under Francis' instruction, the students are well-versed in protecting the environment, and they exhibit a healthy respect for their surroundings.
The displays ranged from humorous to strictly serious, and included recycled plants, a car junkyard with toy cars on their sides, and information about non-point pollution, which results from rainwater carrying away sediment, bacteria and other pollutants.
The students took obvious pride in showing off their handiwork. Elisha Warner and Tanesha Philip showed what you can do with some creative recycling. Question: "Can you can take dead plants, and turn them into decoration?" the display reads. Hypothesis: "We think you can." Conclusion: "Yes, you can."
And how. The two students creating a display filled with painted palm branches, palm fronds, dried flowers and flower stems, with new flowers created out of molding clay.
"You can leave the plants in the earth," Warner explained, "because a dead plant is a natural resource — it still gives nutrients to the soil."
The students created their displays with recycled materials. Pointing out the back of the cardboard display, Philip said they used recycled paper and water to create it.
Four students — Ipheleia Petersen, Chanisa Furlonge, Mikieliah Greer and Estaphine Vanterpool — showed off their non-point pollution project. A box was filled with clay on one side, indicating ground bereft of tree life, which encourages non-point pollution as water flows over. On the other side of the box was a slice of green carpet depicting fertile earth, which absorbs the runoff. A sign in back describes non-point source pollution.
It is "what occurs when rain or snowfall (moves) over and through the ground," the sign reads. It continues, "As the runoff moves, it picks up and carries away manmade and natural pollutants, taking them to coastal waters."
The worldwide Earth Day celebration began in 1970, now recognized as the birth of the environmental movement. A welcoming pamphlet produced by the students reads, in part: "In the Virgin Islands, it is very necessary for us to protect and preserve our environment. We have very limited land space, and the destruction of our fragile marine and land environments will affect future generations."
After the library presentation, Francis concluded the activities outside with a garden tour and planting.
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