Grace Hill Teacher Uses Worms, Old Pajamas In Environmental Lessons
Last updated Thursday, February 21, 2008 8:16 PM CST in News
By Lana F. Flowers
The Morning News
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ROGERS - The worms gorge themselves on coffee grounds, collected from local Starbucks.
There was the day, however, Ryan Finley - who teaches in a self-contained classroom at Grace Hill Elementary School in Rogers - brought a pair of his wife Carri's old pajamas. The cotton fabric fed the worms in a process called vermicomposting.
The half-dozen third-, fourth- and fifth-graders in Finley's self-contained classroom watch the worms turn the organic matter and cloth into soil. The worms live in a black, round bin about 3 feet tall, in Finley's classroom.
"Everyone calls me a tree-hugger or Mr. Green Jeans or 'The Lorax,' among others, that are not so kind," Finley said.
He's trying to instill in students a lifelong lesson: that natural resources are limited and it's up to them to reduce, reuse and recycle.
Oh, and some math sneaks in there too. The students count and rinse plastic bottles and figure how much money they'll get from recycling energy bar wrappers, worth 2 cents each.
Then there's the science, as students on Thursday discussed greenhouse gases.
"Greenhouse gas is not caused by an orchid grower who eats too many beans," Finley said. "That would be gas in the greenhouse."
He explained carbon dioxide, water vapor and methane gas act like the glass top of a greenhouse. The gases hold heat and prevent it from escaping the earth, contributing to global warming.
The ozone layer acts like a blanket and holds in the greenhouse gases, Finley explained, except we can't kick off that particular blanket if the planet gets too hot.
Students do their part to prevent pollution and greenhouse gases by rinsing bottles, then peeling off the labels to ready them for recycling.
"I think it's great," said Dalton Hoskins, a fourth-grader.
He hopes his efforts will save the earth "from getting polluted with lots of gases and dirty water."
Finley briefly interrupts the interview to sneak in some more schooling, prompting Hoskins to say what water and trees are.
"It starts with an 'N,'" Finley said.
"Natural resources," Hoskins responded.
Finley was patient with the students, instructing them to put calculators and pencils back in their desks and to sit still. He brought a cough drop to a boy who could not stop coughing. He jumped from station to station, gently guiding students who had gotten distracted from their tasks.
That patience likely was nurtured when Finley, now 31 and a teacher for six years, grew up with his autistic brother in Missouri. His brother was the reason he decided to become a teacher.
That decision benefits Taylor Miller, a fourth grader, today. Miller said he likes to feed the worms in the vermicompost bin the heads of rotten lettuce and tomatoes donated to the classroom.
Miller has learned the worms turn the organic matter into soil, where he could plant flowers or vegetables he could eat later. Those same vegetables could result in more organic waste, which the worms could eat again, and so on.
Superintendent Janie Darr previously said she'd like to start similar recycling and "green" initiatives in other district schools.
AT A GLANCE
The Lorax
Some people refer to Kevin Finley, who works environmental lessons into daily studies at Grace Hill Elementary School, as "The Lorax."
Dr. Theodor Seuss Geisel breathed life into "The Lorax" in a children's story in 1971. The Lorax lived in a truffula tree and a store owner, the Once-ler, cut down all the truffula trees. He needed truffula tuft to knit and sell truffula stuff, and biggered and biggered his business.
That proved very unwise, but the Once-ler saw the error of his ways and chided future generations:
"You're in charge of the last of the Truffula Seeds.
And Truffula Trees are what everyone needs.
Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care.
Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.
Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack.
Then the Lorax
and all of his friends
may come back."
Source: "The Lorax," By Dr. Seuss
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