Saturday, April 21, 2001

By Keith Boydston, Stars and Stripes

Keith Boydston / Stars and Stripes Elvira Bianco, 14, left, and Cherrelle Blevins, 14, both eightth-graders at the U.S. high school in Naples, Italy, plant flowers along the school's main walkway Friday.

While Sunday marks the 31st anniversary of Earth Day — a day when the world directs its attention to the environment — many Department of Defense Dependents Schools teachers and students already are focused on environmental issues. It is part of the standard academic curriculum.

"In my class, studying the environment is a yearlong process," said Anna Bors, a second-grade Italian-language immersion teacher at the Naples Elementary School in Italy. "My goal is to teach the kids that the whole planet is interconnected — humans, animals and plants. You just can’t teach that in one day."

What she teaches is similar to what students in other DODDS students are learning.

"All DODDS schools have the same standards and curriculum for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade," said Deborah Markl, the science liaison officer for the DODDS Hessen District in Germany.

The curriculum is organized on a "stepping-stone" basis — each year builds on the previous year.

By the eighth grade, students should have gained a sense of how the world is interconnected, said Harold Mills, a science teacher at Lakenheath Middle School in England.

From discussions about extinction and how humans contribute to the demise of species, students in the sixth to eighth grades learn where they fit into the Earth’s ecosystem.

Along the way, seventh-graders are taught such things as how energy is transferred through the environment, from sunlight absorbed by plants to nourishment for predators who consume plant-eating animals.

"Each year, it’s a little more detailed," Mills said.

In addition, the school has a recycling program that is popular with students who understand the importance of efficient use of the planet’s resources, he said.

Mills said a look around the school grounds is enough to understand that the effort is working. About 850 students are enrolled at the school and the schoolyard is virtually free of litter.

"I see kids run to the recycle bins. They pick up their litter," Mills said. Children at this age, he said, are curious about the world and they have a desire to make everything right. Educating them about the environment and where they fit gives them a sense of responsibility.

At Vilseck Middle and High School in Germany, science teacher Yolanda Willhoite plans a variety of projects throughout the year to educate her students.

An upcoming assignment will ask students to brainstorm ideas on saving the Earth’s environment. Some of the Earth’s foes include acid rain, the diminishing Brazilian rain forests and topsoil erosion.

"We will sit down and come up with a plan on how to stop polluting," Willhoite said.

Her class recently finished an ozone project. The students learned the definition of ozone, how it is formed and why it is important. Ozone keeps ultraviolet rays out; without it, temperatures on Earth would be unbearably cold or unbearably hot.

But work isn’t limited to the classroom. Students have planned a visit to a lake on Rose Barracks to check pond water samples. The students will see if anything is living in the lake. Hopefully they might find a life form or two.

The school also plans to celebrate Earth Day when the weather warms. On that day Willhoite’s class will walk around the community to pick up trash.

Willhoite said there is an emphasis to include the environment, technology and society in science class. She teaches biology and chemistry at the high school.

She also encourages students to learn all they can about their environment. She often tells them, "When I am old and gray, you will be the one making decisions about me so learn now."

For most teachers, issues on the environment are regularly discussed in class, regardless of grade level.

"It’s definitely an ongoing thing," said Ramona Binci, a fourth-grade teacher in Naples. "The environment comes up in a lot of lessons, and in a lot of subjects. It’s all intertwined."

And students seem to like the curriculum.

"We should be thinking about the environment all the time," said Jesse Noriega-Fazio, a sixth-grader at the Naples elementary school. "Every day should be Earth Day."

Outside of the DODDS normal curriculum requirements, some teachers in Germany have trained in a pilot program called Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment, a worldwide network of students, teachers, and scientists working together to study and understand the global environment, Markl said.

Students and teachers from more than 9,800 schools in more than 95 countries are working with research scientists to learn more about our planet, she said.

The pilot program is being sponsored in conjunction with the Army, which has provided funding to buy equipment for teachers and to bring trainers to Germany from GLOBE headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Ron Jensen, Richelle Turner Collins and Dan O’Brien contributed to this story.

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