AUBURN - Forget landfills.
Sam Tenney / The Citizen
East Middle School seventh-grader Matt Johns glues together plastic beverage bottles to form the body of a robot Tuesday morning. Students in Rebecca Moshaty's art class are constructing sculptures with recycled materials as part of a project.
East Middle School seventh-grader Matt Johns glues together plastic beverage bottles to form the body of a robot Tuesday morning. Students in Rebecca Moshaty's art class are constructing sculptures with recycled materials as part of a project.
A group of seventh-grade East Middle School students figured out something else to do with household trash.
On Tuesday, students at the Auburn Enlarged City School District middle school taped, glued, cut and crushed newspapers, cereal boxes, soda cans and bottles and plastic bags - items usually discarded into trash bins - to create works of art.
Robots stood half-assembled on tables in art teacher Rebecca Moshaty's classroom. Students crumbled newspapers that eventually will become a colossal iPod. Another group used two-liter soda bottles to assemble a sculpture of a man walking his dog. A Frosted Mini-Wheats box slathered in yellow paint became SpongeBob Squarepants.
“Through these projects they see how much trash we have after one day.” Moshaty said. “It will make them think twice about throwing things out and recycling them instead.”
For many students, this project did just that.
“I think we are going to recycle more,” Elise Morgan, 13, of Auburn said.
Morgan and three other students set out to create a tree for their art project, using newspapers as the trunk and soda bottles, cans, wrappers, and plastic and paper bags as leaves.
“Because trash is hurting our environment, we thought we could symbolize something that's helping the environment,” Katie Ambrose, 13, of Auburn said.
Moshaty's trash projects are part of a broader recycling initiative started by science teacher Sharon Campanelli.
Last year, Campanelli applied for and won a $600 grant from the Auburn Educational Foundation, a non-profit established in 2003 that provides funding to educators in Auburn public schools by way of competitive grants. Through this funding Campanelli purchased blue recycling bins for paper trash and are placed in classrooms throughout the school.
She integrated the bins into a larger unit which she titled “Beyond Garbage,” she said, a unit that transcends subject area lines.
Students learned about a new initiative from Coca-Cola that involves manufacturing T-shirts using recycled soda bottles in technology, she said. In social studies, students explored the origins of recycling, when and how it started. In math, students calculated how much trash is generated and graphed the data. And art teachers assigned the trash projects.
“We're trying to tell kids our environment is important to us,” Campanelli said. “We have a responsibility to take care of our environment.”
Chris Dent, 13, of Auburn, is admittedly a heavy soda drinker. He says he is generally conscientious about recycling the soda cans and bottles, but after this recycling unit, he is going to make sure he disposes of the waste correctly.
Added classmate Joe Marinelli, 13, of Auburn, “Before you throw something out, think if you can do something else with it.”
Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net
On Tuesday, students at the Auburn Enlarged City School District middle school taped, glued, cut and crushed newspapers, cereal boxes, soda cans and bottles and plastic bags - items usually discarded into trash bins - to create works of art.
Robots stood half-assembled on tables in art teacher Rebecca Moshaty's classroom. Students crumbled newspapers that eventually will become a colossal iPod. Another group used two-liter soda bottles to assemble a sculpture of a man walking his dog. A Frosted Mini-Wheats box slathered in yellow paint became SpongeBob Squarepants.
“Through these projects they see how much trash we have after one day.” Moshaty said. “It will make them think twice about throwing things out and recycling them instead.”
For many students, this project did just that.
“I think we are going to recycle more,” Elise Morgan, 13, of Auburn said.
Morgan and three other students set out to create a tree for their art project, using newspapers as the trunk and soda bottles, cans, wrappers, and plastic and paper bags as leaves.
“Because trash is hurting our environment, we thought we could symbolize something that's helping the environment,” Katie Ambrose, 13, of Auburn said.
Moshaty's trash projects are part of a broader recycling initiative started by science teacher Sharon Campanelli.
Last year, Campanelli applied for and won a $600 grant from the Auburn Educational Foundation, a non-profit established in 2003 that provides funding to educators in Auburn public schools by way of competitive grants. Through this funding Campanelli purchased blue recycling bins for paper trash and are placed in classrooms throughout the school.
She integrated the bins into a larger unit which she titled “Beyond Garbage,” she said, a unit that transcends subject area lines.
Students learned about a new initiative from Coca-Cola that involves manufacturing T-shirts using recycled soda bottles in technology, she said. In social studies, students explored the origins of recycling, when and how it started. In math, students calculated how much trash is generated and graphed the data. And art teachers assigned the trash projects.
“We're trying to tell kids our environment is important to us,” Campanelli said. “We have a responsibility to take care of our environment.”
Chris Dent, 13, of Auburn, is admittedly a heavy soda drinker. He says he is generally conscientious about recycling the soda cans and bottles, but after this recycling unit, he is going to make sure he disposes of the waste correctly.
Added classmate Joe Marinelli, 13, of Auburn, “Before you throw something out, think if you can do something else with it.”
Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net