By Noah Zucker

Although today's Earth Day 2021 in Delaware won’t look like Earth Day 2019, it won’t look like Earth Day 2020 either. Educators and environmental stewards have identified new ways to save the earth while being mindful of the pandemic.

Students and teachers at North Dover Elementary School didn’t really get to celebrate in 2020, given that Earth Day came just weeks after the first lockdown began. This year, the school is getting back on track.

In the classroom

K-4 art teacher Liz Long hopes to foster a sense of resourcefulness in her students.

“That’s a huge reason why I do Earth Day things every year,” she said.

Resourcefulness becomes even more of a focus when teaching her remote learners.

“Teaching them how to be resourceful at home by upcycling and reusing things brings across a whole new part of their creativity,” Ms. Long said.

All her remote learners received a bag of art supplies at the beginning of the year, but many have already used them all. Ms. Long said it’s been a pleasure watching students make use of materials they find around their homes to complete their assignments.

Her Earth Day lesson for in-person students was a little different.

“This entire week we are outside as long as its not raining,” Ms. Long said. “They are making art using all materials that we found in nature.”

Students gathered what they could from the school’s garden, but Ms. Long wants to instill a sense of respect for that space and the outdoors as a whole.

“There’s not much to collect on our property other than pine cones and dandelions,” she said. “We’re trying to promote not disturbing nature and not ripping things out of the ground to make art with it for five minutes.”

Ms. Long said it’s important that environmental art not destroy the space it sets out to highlight.

“All last week we talked about respecting the earth and then what artists who work in environmental art do to preserve nature and create artwork that is sustainable and not long-lasting,” she said.

Sustainable environmental art is not permanent, she said, so it’s important that artists find a way to document their work before Mother Nature destroys it.

“The kids are creating giant mandalas or little cityscapes,” in the school yard, Ms. Long said. “Then they’re cleaning it up.”

North Dover principal Shani Benson said promoting outdoor education has been key for her school, especially amidst the pandemic.

“We have another teacher who is working on an outdoor classroom,” she said. “Through Winner Subaru and Adopt-a-Classroom, she’s getting a small grant to do some things to build that classroom out there.”

Ms. Benson said the project began with a new concrete pad and will grow from there. That’s not the only thing the school is doing enhance its outdoor space.

“We are working with the district office and with a Girl Scouts troop to revamp our garden section in the middle,” she said. That space will also be used for educational purposes.

Second-grade teacher Alisha Hanna is doing research projects with her accelerated track students. The projects were based around Earth Day’s global theme this year, which was “restore our earth.”

“I really had them dive into what ‘restore’ means,” Ms. Hanna said. “They took time to research and define that. They really got into the history of Earth Day, why it’s important. They took all that and created a virtual book they’re able to share with their classmates.”

In addition to their books, these second-graders created videos.

“They took their virtual book and actually created a video with graphics and sounds and their own audio that explains everything from the start of Earth Day to why it’s important to what students can do to help our earth and make an impact,” Ms. Hanna said. “I’m really proud of them and the work they’ve done with this.”

DNREC

Schools aren’t the only part of the state government trying to foster a sense of environmental stewardship in Delaware’s kids through film. Delaware’s Division of Natural Resources and Environmental Conversation held a video contest for K-12 students statewide.

“The contest was aimed to educate students about the importance of environmental protection and inspire them to be part of the solution to address climate change,” said Nikki Lavoie, a public information officer with DNREC.

The question students were asked to answer was: “What should we be doing to protect and restore our earth?” she said. That query also intentionally aligns with Earth Day’s global theme.

“Three winners, one from each grade category, will be announced on Earth Day by (Gov. John Carney),” Ms. Lavoie said.

That event is not open to the public and won’t be livestreamed, but DNREC will make footage available online after the fact.

But that’s not the only activity DNREC has going on for Earth Day this year.

“This month we unveiled our Recyclopedia, which is a quick and easy online tool that takes the guesswork out of recycling,” Ms. Lavoie said. It’s available at de.gov/recycling.

“This is a project we’ve been working on for many months, and unveiling it right around Earth Day is a wonderful opportunity to educate people about recycling,” she said. “People often make mistakes.”

This month there’s also a fun quiz on DNREC’s website.

“It is specific to Delaware, but also includes some questions that move beyond (the state),” Ms. Lavoie said. “We’ve not previously done that for Earth Day. It’s something we did this year because we were trying to think creatively about what could be done virtually to engage the public.”

Nonprofit celebrations

Some private nonprofit organizations, like the Delaware Nature Society, are also hosting events. DelNature has extended the holiday’s title to “Earth Day of Giving and Action.”

The holiday is also when DelNature holds its annual members-only meeting. This year, the virtual event will include remarks from Rep. Bethany Long Hall.

There will be three guests, including Delaware Rep. Valerie Longhurst.

“Rep. Longhurst is a longtime champion of the environment and led the fight for clean water in the General Assembly the past few years,” said DelNature Executive Director Anne Harper.

Additionally, the 2021 Outstanding Environmental Educator of the Year Award will be given to Katie Pollock from the University of Delaware Lab School and Kerry Wilson from St. Anne’s Episcopal School in Middletown.

But like DNREC, DelNature is not limiting their Earth Day celebrations to today.

On Saturday at 9 a.m., the organization will host a tree-planting event at their Middle Run Natural Area facility in partnership with New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer.

The National Council on Agricultural Life and Labor Research Fund is also holding an Earth Day event today. Their Restoring Central Dover initiative will hold a community clean-up event in downtown Dover from 5 until 6 p.m.

Volunteers are asked to play a part in keeping the community of Dover clean. For more information, visit here.

Members will meet at the park at Kirkwood and Mary Street just prior to the clean-up.