With Earth Day coming up, my Cub Scout den recently participated in our town's annual Spring Clean-Up. To extend the boys' learning about the impact of pollution on our environment we read Lynne Cherry's A River Ran Wild, the history of the Nashua River which runs through our community. (Lynne's site is http://www.lynnecherry.com and she has several other nature related titles.) You can visit http://www.nashuariverwatershed.org to learn more about this environmental project.
In the classroom students can learn more about the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts by visiting http://www.epa.gov/r5water/cwa.htm for older students and http://www.epa.gov/kids for elementary aged students.
There are many ways for students to extend their learning of how pollution impacts our lives and health. Some research topics could include: increasing asthma rates in urban areas, ground water contamination, communities with unusually high cancer rates, the impact of bottle bills, recycling efforts and products made from recycled materials, global warming, alternative fuels, and the list goes on.
It is important to remind students that science isn't only something to study, but something to be lived.
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