April 26, 2024

St. Joan of Arc students plan, present World Earth Day Fair

REGIONAL
Story and photos by David Martin

CHICOPEE – In honor of Earth Day on April 22, seventh-graders at St. Joan of Arc School in Chicopee presented a World Earth Day Fair.

First-year middle school science teacher Amy Fitzgerald explained that each student had to pick a country that is among the top 10 that contribute to climate change. Then they had to do research and present a trifold display showing how that country is causing global warming and what they are doing to combat it.

“I am hoping the kids get a sense (that) the world is bigger than here in Chicopee, there is more going on outside of school,” Fitzgerald said. “The environment impacts us all, so I wanted them to learn that we have to take care of where we live, so if they can make little changes like recycling or even turning off a lights at home and conserving energy to learn how to help change or fix global warming.”

One of the principles of Catholic Social Teaching is care of God’s creation, the Earth. There were posters in the school hall encouraging those attending to reduce, reuse and recycle. This is a cause close to the heart of seventh-grader Ethan Porier. He is hopeful that future cars will have alternate sources or maybe have better emissions to prevent pollution, something he believes his fellow students should learn about.

“It is important because we need to save the environment from being polluted because when we leave stuff on the side of the road or in the ocean, it could lead to animals getting caught in them or just pollute the environment and we only have one Earth,” said Porier.

Also on display were news headlines from around the world about global warming. Fitzgerald said there were more articles about climate change than she expected with very scary headlines. The seventh-graders did a lot of research on their own outside of class. She added her students also found out what animal species besides humans are affected by climate change. Students like Taylor Graham were very concerned about how the future world will be affected if too many animals die from environmental issues.

“Years from now, instead of more species being extinct, instead of the earth being in an even worse state that it already is, that it will be in a better state and maybe some animals will have started to reproduce more and there will be more of them and they will be less close to extinction so that people in the future can live better,” said Graham.

The students created three-dimensional models with figurines to show how their country is affected by pollution. All students from grades one through eight had timeslots throughout the day to view the displays and ask questions.

Joan of Arc principal William McDonald said, “Kids need to know what is going on with planet Earth. There is so much fake news out there nowadays. ‘Oh global warming, that’s just a myth.’ These kids need to live it, to see it, to breath it and know what is right and what is wrong so they can be the creators and helping to continue this Earth.”

A video version of this story will be featured on an upcoming edition of “Real to Reel,” which airs Saturday evenings at 7 p.m. on WWLP-22 NEWS.