An Environmental Encounter

Millersville students and elementary schoolers teamed up and created a solution for a local environmental problem at Carter & MacRae (C&M) Elementary School this semester and presented one of their solutions on December 1.

From trays to apple cores, the students participated in a hands-on event focused on proposing a system to collect and sort materials from the C&M school cafeteria in an effort to decrease the amount of waste going into landfills and to reduce the elementary school’s environmental footprint.

The elementary students built a model of a proposed sorting system for the materials and created a display that was presented to the Environmental Recovery Corporation (ERC), a residual waste company. Throughout this process Millersville University students from Sharon Brusic’s UNIV 103 class, Learning by Doing, assisted the children and guided them through the planning and the execution of the project.

The event was a part of the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) Team, the after school program that engages fourth and fifth graders in learning and exploring the STEAM careers.

“The program typically consists of 3-day ‘modules’,” said Brusic, MU professor of applied engineering, safety and technology and an organizer of the program.  “On day one of a module, local representatives from a business visit the class to talk about their job and a problem they face.  Then, the elementary schoolers work the remainder of day one, and through day two, brainstorming solutions to the problems.  On day three, they finalize their solutions and present them to the business representatives, who returns  to the class that day, to see what kinds of solutions the children came up with.”

The STEAM team program began last year as a partnership between C&M Elementary School, Millersville University and other local organizations. The various MU faculty members are assisting in this program, including Brusic, Cheryl Desmond, a MU faculty emeritus, and Barry Kornhauser, assistant director of campus and community engagement.  For more information about the program, please contact, Sharon Brusic at 717-871-5548 or Sharon.Brusic@millersville.edu.