Green roof classroom idea grows at P.S. 41

By Jill Stern

P.S. 41, the Greenwich Village School, has an ambitious new plan to get onboard the green bandwagon. And they aim to start right at the top, with the roof — a green roof, that is.

Not only will the proposal — a planted oasis covering the 22,000-square-foot roof — provide a laboratory for the elementary school students to study plants and nature, but it will help keep the school cool in summer and warm in the winter. It would be the first full green roof on a New York City public school.

This Friday, P.S. 41, at W. 11th St. and Sixth Ave., will host its own Earth Day festivities. Co-hosting the event will be the National Gardening Association, which is backing the green roof plan and has selected the elementary school for its Adopt a School Garden Program. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to attend, and it’s hoped he’ll voice his support — and, even better, pledge city funding — for the project. 

A slew of activities for the students will be offered through corporate sponsors and local environmental groups, but the highlight of the day will be the announcement of their green roof proposal. 

The school’s administration and a handful of parents, along with N.G.A., have put together a proposal they call GELL, Greenroof Environmental Literacy Laboratory, which, when completed, will be on the cutting edge of the New York City Department of Education’s green learning curriculum. Under the plan, the green roof garden will be used as a teacher-training facility for D.O.E. teachers focusing on environmental sciences, alternative energies, agriculture andnutrition.

The timing of P.S. 41’s proposal couldn’t be better. Last Sunday, on Earth Day, the mayor gave a passionate speech detailing a raft of long-term sustainability goals for the city, and more than 100 measures the city will take to achieve them.

The mayor spoke of New York City becoming a forerunner in green living and called upon New Yorkers to embrace his proposals. P.S. 41’s announcement of its green roof program is the school essentially saying: “Count us in.”

Green roofs are growing.

“There might be 100 to 150 green roofs in the city now,” said Leslie Hoffman, head of Earth Pledge, a local nonprofit organization that promotes green roofs. “That’s up from about 50 green roofs two years ago.”

As for a green roof on top of P.S. 41, Hoffman said, “The potential is unlimited. It will bring urban kids close to nature and give them a first-hand, hands-on, up-close ecological education.” She noted the example of a green roof on top of the Calhoun School, an Upper West Side private school, where students grow herbs for use in the cafeteria and peas to use in lab experiments.

Still, no public school in the city has a green roof yet. 

“The School of the Future has a small, modular program in use and Bard High School has expressed interest in developing one on their building,” Hoffman noted. “Sustainability is the big idea of our time,” she stressed. “We have no other options.”

Kelly Shannon, P.S. 41’s principal, sees clear benefits in the project.

“We have put a great deal of emphasis on deepening our sciencecurriculum,” Shannon said. “We want to build on children’s natural curiosity about the world they live in. This project can help them see that all communities, regardless of where they are located, can benefit from going green.”

Vicki Sando, an active P.S. 41 parent, is credited with coming up with the idea for the roof garden project. Two years ago, she put several planters in theschool’s middle yard, which had been void of any plant life. Lois Weiswasser, then the principal, liked the idea, so the Parent Teacher Association funded thegarden expansion. 

“On a whim, over a year ago, I applied for the N.G.A.’s Adopt a School Garden Program,” Sando said. A month later, she got a phone call and a visit from Rose Getch, the gardening organization’s communications director. The pair hit it off and Sando told Getch her idea about a huge rooftop garden. Getch was enthusiastic.

“We talked about all of the possibilities, which got us thinking about doing a green roof and teaching facility,” Sando said. “Kelly Shannon has been totally behind the project and, having young children herself, understands the importance of it.” 

Chris Hayes, another parent, drew up sketches of the future rooftop. They met with the Region 9 science team to incorporate the new science curriculum into the program. 

“In the final proposal each grade is intended to have their own separate plot, so that different grade levels will be able to use the space simultaneously,” Hayes said. “Plots will be tended by the students, teachers and parents, and summer workshops are planned for teacher training on how to use a garden to teach STEM [science, technology, math and engineering] education, as well as things like nutrition and social studies.

“There is also a conservation area,” Hayes continued, “that will serve as an example of the importance of providing for wildlife, and which hopefully will expose the students to birds that nest and insects that help sustain the environment.” 

Putting a green roof on a public school also will add benefits, such as reduced cooling and heating charges. 

“Green roofs work 24/7 at no cost once they’re installed,” Hayes said.

Despite the excitement over the project, no date has been set for construction of the roof. Funds still need to be raised. The gardening association has pledged financial support, there are some corporate sponsors and the P.T.A. plans to contribute funds. But the school is hoping that the city, through the Schools Construction Authority, will actively support the project. The project then would need to go through a bidding process to find a contractor to build it.

Friday’s P.S. 41 activities, which start at 9 a.m., will include a composting demonstration by the Lower East Side Ecology Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing community awareness, involvement and youth development through environmental education programs. Earth Pledge will be displaying various environmentally friendly products and alternative energy solutions. Food demonstrations will include salsa-making by Les Dames Escoffier, which will also teach the children about urban windowsill gardening, and butter-making will be presented by Organic Valley. There will also be lectures in the history and folklore of herbs and vegetables, with herb sampling.

Art activities, such as corn husk doll-making, will be run by parents. There will be a seed table where students can guess the number of seeds in fruits and guess which seeds produce which plants.

“There will be many academic opportunities for student learning,” said Shannon of the roof concept. “But the idea that what children take part in here can affect their future was very important to us.”

http://www.thevillager.com/villager_208/greenroofclassroom.html

Biodegradable plastic made from plants, not oil, is emerging

By Ron Barnett, USA TODAY Here is one word about an up-and-coming innovation in plastics: cornfields. Bioplastics — most of which are now made from corn — are poised to grab  a bigger share of the plastics market as concerns about the environment  and U.S. dependence on foreign oil promote alternatives to products made  from petrochemicals. They already are showing up in a variety of products, such as plastic gift  cards, food containers and cellphone casings, says Steve Davies, a  spokesman for NatureWorks. NatureWorks, based in Minnetonka, Minn., developed one of the first  plant-based plastics with the creation of a resin technology called  Ingeo. Its Ingeo plastic pellets are used to make clothing, diapers and  food-packaging material. After doubling the size of its manufacturing plant in Nebraska,  NatureWorks will have the capacity to produce up to 300 million  pounds of pellets a year. Research by NatureWorks, a subsidiary of agribusiness giant Cargill and  Teijin of Japan, indicates a future market demand of up to 50 billion pounds  of bioplastics a year within two to five years. That would represent about a  10% share of the global plastics market. Among the first companies to turn to biodegradable plastic in a big way is  Naturally Iowa, an organic dairy that makes milk and water bottles out of  pellets from NatureWorks, says William Horner, Naturally Iowa's CEO. "This is one of the greatest hidden sources of replacing petroleum that  we've got," Horner says. "The cost of the bottles is 5% to 10% higher than regular plastic bottles, but it's  worth it both environmentally and economically in the long run," he says. "When  you compare the cost for disposal of plastic to the cost of disposal of a  compostable bottle, all of a sudden the cost levels out." Although the plastic is biodegradable, disposing of it is not necessarily as simple  as throwing your bioplastic bottles onto your backyard compost heap, says Betty  McLaughlin, executive director of the non-profit Container Recycling Institute. The basic ingredient of corn-based plastics is polylactide, or PLA. Most PLA has  to go to a commercial composting plant to be decomposed, she says. Although  PLA can be recycled for use in other products, it can't be recycled along with  regular petroleum-based plastics. "It sounds great," McLaughlin says. "It's renewable, biodegradable and all that  kind of stuff. But the practical matter is that you still have to grow the corn to  extract the sugar from. And how many pesticides do you need to put into the soil  to grow the corn?" It's an open question, she says, whether it's more energy efficient to use  biodegradable plastic or to recycle petroleum-based plastic. Researchers are finding ways to address some of those problems, though. Cambridge, Mass.-based Metabolix has developed a brand of biodegradable  plastic called Mirel that decomposes in soil, compost or even water, says  Brian Igoe, chief brand officer. It's made from genetically engineered microbes  that convert corn sugar into polymers in a fermentation process. Metabolix has engineered a switch-grass crop that actually grows plastic inside  its leaves and stems, but that product is still a few years away, Igoe says. Mirel costs about twice as much as petroleum-based plastic, so the company  markets it for such uses as packaging for natural cosmetics, or agricultural mulch  film that can be tilled into the soil to eliminate waste and cut costs, Igoe says. The company has a joint venture with Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) called  Telles, which is building a plant in Iowa that will go into operation next year  with the capacity to produce 110 million pounds of Mirel annually, he says. Researchers at Clemson University in South Carolina have come up with  solutions to some of the main technical drawbacks of bioplastics. For example, molecules such as water can slip through corn-based plastic,  which means that the water would evaporate out of such a bottle over time,  says Danny Roberts, one of the Clemson scientists who developed a new,  stronger type of bioplastic bottle that hit stores recently. The type of plastic used in the EarthBottles that he and co-inventor David  Gangemi developed is also more resistant to heat, which deforms bottles  made of 100% corn, he says. They added some natural ingredients to the mix that retain the biodegradable  properties while eliminating the drawbacks, Roberts says. The result is a  material that has the potential for use in automotive parts, fabrics and biomedical  parts, among other things, he says. And it's all non-toxic. "Everything is all food-grade material," he says. "You could grind it up and eat it.  It might constipate you, but it wouldn't kill you." The first company to use EarthBottles is Brevard, N.C.-based Gaia Herbs, a liquid  herbal grower and manufacturer that helped finance the Clemson project,  Roberts says. "The original impetus for us was to find a way to save on the cost of freight and  the risk of breakage associated with pharmaceutical glass," says Greg Cumberford,  vice president of strategic initiatives for the company. Being a certified organic company, Gaia didn't want to risk any traces of  petroleum chemistry mixing with its products by using ordinary plastic bottles,  Cumberford says. EarthBottles also contain natural antioxidants that help protect the product inside, he says. "The reaction has been overwhelming," says Angela Guerrant, vice president of  sales for Gaia who showed the bottles at a trade expo in Boston recently. "They're shocked that this hasn't been done already." Barnett is a reporter for The Greenville (S.C.) News.

Books Ms. Bennett read over the summer

One of my favorite activities during the summer is to hang out by the pool and catch up on all of the reading I haven't had time for during the school year. I would like to share with you some of the books that I enjoyed this summer.

Across the Wire is a memoir that tells the story of different people that the author Luis Alberto Urrea met while working as a translator along the Mexican border. He also tells about his own family, born in Tijuana to an American mother and a Mexican father.

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah tells the story of child soldiers in the Sierre Leon in Africa. This is a subject I am working to learn a lot about as it is a passion of mine to fight against it.

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray tells the story of a young girl who has been raised in colonial India but dreams of visiting London. Her wish is granted after the tragic death of her mother. She wrestles with the guilt over her mother's death and not fitting in at her new boarding school, all while learning she is able to see visions of both the future and into another realm.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski is an incredible re-telling of the classic story of Hamlet. A young boy is raised on a farm in Wisconsin, helping with his family's dog breeding business. After his father's tragic death, he must deal with his guilt over his dad's death, his awkward relationship with an estranged uncle and a strained relationship with the mother he has always been close to.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks is a thought-provoking science fiction book. It is told from the viewpoint of key figures in fighting or surviving the great Zombie War that has killed a large portion of the human race.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamante is a fictional story set in biblical times. It tells the story of a woman who is just barely mentioned in the Bible, Dinah. She is the daughter of Leah and Jacob. It tells the story of how women lived, loved, and related to one another during that time period.

Scarpetta by Patricia Cornwell is the 16th book in her Kay Scarpetta series. Kay Scarpetta is a fictional medical examiner who uses her forensic and legal knowledge to catch serial killers while dealing with issues in her own personal life.

Fires in the Middle School Bathroom: Advice to Teachers from Middle Schoolers is just what the name would imply. It helped me remember what it was like to be in the 7th grade myself and reminded me to continue to work to get to know my students as individuals so that I can be the great teacher that they each deserve!