Writing Feature Articles - Step 1 - Lesson 1 | Page 40

Writing Feature Articles - Lesson a
Writing Feature Articles - Handout .. a

Beginner

Name: ______________________________________ Date: ____________________

. a: Feature Articles Packet

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of

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Life in a Green School
Connecticut students restock rivers, compost lunches, and save the world
By Katherine Forbes | April 4, 2007

Scholastic Kid Reporter Katherine Forbes with Marjorie Drucker, Barnard’s Magnet
Resource teacher, in a school greenhouse. (Photo: Courtesy Katherine Forbes)

Do you raise salmon in your classroom at school? Do you ever
have class while ?oating down a river in a canoe? Do you ever
throw your school lunch leftovers into a compost bin when you
are ?nished?
That’s all part of a normal school day at Barnard Environmental
Studies Magnet School in New Haven, Connecticut. Known
as a “green” school, Barnard attracts preschool to sixthgrade students from all over the region who are interested in
environmental studies.
"We do Earth Day all year long,” said Marjorie Drucker, Barnard’s Magnet Resource teacher. With the
school’s special curriculum, its 325 students study the environment all day long.
Being green means that “everything in the building is designed with the environment in mind,” Drucker
told Scholastic News. For example, the lights go off when people leave the room, and special windows
provide “passive light,” cutting down on the need for electric lighting. When a window is open, the airconditioning automatically turns off.
More Than Conservation
Conserving energy is not all that students do to help the environment. While learning about the dying
salmon population in the Connecticut rivers, students also do something to help out—they raise more
salmon.
In the classrooms there are ?sh tanks containing salmon eggs. The eggs are kept in water at 2 degrees
Celsius. After the eggs hatch, students observe the baby salmon through all the stages of development,
then release the adult salmon into Connecticut rivers.
Composting is another part of taking care of the environment at Barnard. Students dispose of their
lunches by throwing the remaining food into a composting bin in a greenhouse. The resulting compost,
or fertile soil, is used to help grow plants.
At Barnard, almost everything has to do with the environment. Students sing songs about the
environment; their artwork has to do with the environment; even their math classes are focused on
preserving the environment.

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