The Education Committee Working Hard!

BGYSC Education Committee volunteers at Harrison Elementary STEM Fair

By: Orsolya R Hegyi

The newly formed Education Committee of the Bluegrass Youth Sustainability Council decided to start off its volunteering activities at Harrison Elementary’s STEM Fair in partnership with Bluegrass PRIDE.

At around 5:30 pm on March 15^th Harrison Elementary School’s gym began to fill with students and their parents eager to learn about interesting science, ranging from the role of microbes in our food to robots and green living. The BGYSC/Bluegrass PRIDE booth quickly started to swarm with curious children. While Mrs. Kara Sayles of Bluegrass PRIDE was teaching children about solar energy with cool demos that included a solar powered toy car and solar cells on top of a doll house running the fans within, Lydia Livas and Orsolya Hegyi of BGYSC were running a Recycling activity. They had two large bins, one labeled ‘Recycling’ and the other labeled ‘Trash.’ There were a lot of common household waste items with them which they gave to children with the objective to decide whether it was recyclable or not. If the kids placed the item in the correct bin they were awarded a small removable tattoo saying “I recycle!” Parents participated as well as children, and Lydia and Orsolya were delighted to find how knowledgeable on green practices most participants were. Many parents left the event with the newfound knowledge that for example cardboard packaging intended to be put in the freezer was in fact not recyclable due cold waxing on the outside. At one point during the event, Lydia even put on a Rosie the recycle bin costume to the delight of many of the smaller children.

The event was a great success and served as an important kickoff for the BGYSC Education Committee’s plans to educate the FCPS children and families about sustainability and green living!