Pierce Students Use Science to Tackle Real-World Problem

A group of 23 Pierce Elementary fourth-graders are investigating the issue of soil erosion in the Rouge River corridor, and are hoping to score a trip to Disney World in the process.

John Kernan's fourth-grade class at Pierce is participating in the Disney Planet Challenge, a nationwide competition that encourages students to tackle environmental issues in their communities.

"They've done phenomenal work," said Kernan, a fourth-year teacher in the middle of his first year with Birmingham Public Schools. "This project has been all them."

Kernan's class is studying soil erosion, specifically erosion along the Rouge River, which runs straight through Birmingham.

According to Kernan, one his students — Alex Sankbeil — noted that his grandfather's backyard was slowly eroding into the Rouge River. Suddenly, Kernan's class had its project: developing a rain garden.

For months now, Kernan's students have been researching the effect of vegetation on erosion, particularly on stream beds. In the spring, the class plans on constructing their own rain garden on Pierce grounds, with the hopes of eventually bringing their project to the city.

How it works

The Disney Planet Challenge is a project-based learning environmental competition for classrooms across the United States. The project teaches students about science and conservation also encouraging them to make a positive impact on their communities. The project is offered on two levels, for elementary and middle school students.

Here's how the Disney Planet Challenge works:

• Classes select one real-world and local environmental issue — from animal habitat restoration and protection to climate change — and discuss the change students want to see in their community. 
• Students and teachers then develop a project to explore their issue further. This process includes thoroughly researching the topic at hand, educating the community and speaking with experts. All parts of the project must be student-created and student-initiated, from presentations to reaching out to experts.
• Students work to create a project portfolio, whether its physical or digital, made up of pictures, videos, student research and documentation of the experiment. 
• The portfolios are then evaluated based on environmental relevance, student learning, community involvement, the lasting benefit to students, school or community, originality and sustainability.

Disney launched the Planet Challenge in 2009 and during the 2010-11 school year, more than 1,800 classrooms across the United States participated in the program, including 335 final portfolio submissions.

The grand prize for elementary classrooms is an all-expenses-paid trip to Walt Disney World Resort in April for the winning teacher and students and the school principal.

In addition, the winning teacher also receives an all expense-paid trip to the 2013 National Science Teachers Association Conference in San Antonio, TX, and a one-year membership to the NSTA. The winning class also receives a $10,000 grant to continue working on their project.

Making science fun

With the project portfolio due on Feb. 15, Kernan's students turned in their work so far on Feb. 8. However, that doesn't mean the work stops.

So far, students in Kernan's class have split into various teams dedicated to different parts of the project, whether that's research, presenting or project management. Students spent months researching soil erosion, reaching out to experts in the process.

In the spring when building its rain garden, the class will also partner with Little Green Gardeners, an Oakland County-based nonprofit dedicated to teaching kids how to build vegetable gardens at elementary schools. Kernan said volunteers will teach the kids how to plant the various flowers, grasses and vegetables.

All vegetables harvested from the garden will then be donated to Gleaners and Capuchin Soup Kitchen.

According to Kernan's students, they're not just learning about how to stop erosion and other scientific concepts; sometimes, lessons pop up in the most unexpected places.

"Sometimes you're doing things that don't go as planned," said Layla Almassy. "And sometimes we have a bit of a fight ... But we're having fun and learning."

The class's project is also online, at http://stopsoilerosion.weebly.com and on Twitter at @Mrkstudents. The students are also reaching out for help far outside Birmingham, conducting Skype conversations on soil erosion with experts and fellow students from around the world, as well as "QuadBlogging," which connects students working on similar projects around the globe.

On the class's website, students have detailed the steps at creating a rain garden, as well as discussed other solutions to soil erosion, such as mulch blankets and erosion nets.

Kernan said the project has enabled him to both educate his students in the earth sciences, but it's also a chance to get kids excited about learning.

"It gives you a way to sell the kids on science," said Kernan.

Winners for Disney Planet Challenge will be announced sometime in March.