International relations senior and Eco member Sarah Mullkoff passes around a red pine tree to a group of fourth graders at Mount Hope Elementary School so the directions on how to plant it could be read aloud. The MSU Geography Club and Eco visited Mount Hope Elementary School, 1215 E. Mount Hope Ave., in Lansing, to teach students about the environment and recycling for Earth Day.
William Novack sat at a front desk Tuesday afternoon, receiving instructions on how to make triangular folds for an origami design as part of an Earth Day project.
“Trees are green and they’re colorful, and it would be a really nasty world for oxygen without them,” said Novack, a fourth grader at Mount Hope Elementary School, 1215 E. Mount Hope Ave., in Lansing.
Novack and his classmates learned the history of glaciers, what types of items to recycle, how to plant a native plant seed and other environmental and geographical information when members of MSU groups Eco and the Geography Club hosted a program for the students on Earth Day.
“We found that just preaching to people isn’t a very good way to incite change,” said Sean Donovan, co-president of Eco.
“We’re just giving the students a little information and introducing them to the issues.”
Students from Robin Moritz’s and Rita Stanton’s fourth grade classes were divided into four groups and sent to different stations to learn about various aspects of protecting the environment.
To keep within the Earth Day’s theme, elementary schoolers personalized a planting pot with original logos and marker decorations, and received seeds for a butterfly plant and a red pine tree.
“We’re excited to give trees to the kids so they can watch them grow as the kids grow,” said Kelly Sylvester, co-president of the Geography Club.
Personal layout sketchings affectionately titled “my room” and “stairs” provided fourth graders the opportunity to sharpen their map skills by drawing their favorite place and then creating driving directions.
Students also learned how people use braille to maintain their sense of location.
Triangular folds and sharp bends littered the origami station, where students learned which goods to recycle and how to go about the process.
“I’m growing an apple tree in my backyard,” Priscilla Torres said.
“Trees give you oxygen and fresh air outdoors. I really like the fruit.”
Other students said protecting the environment is an issue of utmost importance.
“If there’s no trees, we wouldn’t be able to breathe,” Darius Hatcher said. “We wouldn’t be alive then.”
The two MSU student groups collaborated to share their resources and reach out to the community on Earth Day, Sylvester said.
“One of the things that really stood out when we were reminiscing about our childhood Earth Day experiences was planting trees,” said Corrinne Thomas, co-president of Eco. “(Trees) physically represent how important taking care of the Earth is.”
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