3 minute read
Lessons on Sustainability: Making a Difference by Taking Action
By Deirdre Mingey, 7th Grade House Advisor, MS Social Studies Teacher, and MS Social Studies Department Chair and Andrew Preston, 4th Grade House Advisor
Middle School students and faculty routinely find ways to engage and serve the community around us through division-wide service learning opportunities. As with all things, the pandemic created a challenge for this aspect of our normal Dalton life: The Dalton community became a bubble, and we could not physically contact the communities just outside our doors. So, as a community, we looked inwards and investigated how we can serve right here at school, while hopefully creating positive effects for our surrounding communities. Well, actually, we looked up: The High School had earlier declared “Sustainability” the theme for Intersession and we liked it, too.
The Service Learning Department worked closely with the History, Engineering, and Science departments to run a series of lessons on sustainability, loosely using the theme of “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” With the support of House Advisors, students examined school policies to see what further changes could be made to reduce our school’s carbon footprint (Grades 4–6), debated whether employees should remain at a company with poor environmental practices or work to change it from within (Grades 7–8), worked to reuse recycled materials to make art projects and feats of engineering, and learned about conservation and the effects of recycling.
Individual classes, knowing of our efforts, joined in as well. For example, the Middle School Dance Department offered older Middle Schoolers an opportunity to look into the Korean Pop artists in the group BTS and discuss how they use their art and influence to have a positive effect on climate change. One 4th grade House set up a table outside of Dalton East for an entire day to collect signatures for a petition and to facilitate letter writing, urging politicians to take action now to create a world with more sustainable practices.
A highlight of the Sustainability Series was the remote presentation from the Climate Museum. The Climate Museum is the first museum in the United States dedicated to the climate crisis with the mission to “inspire action on the climate crisis with programming across the arts and sciences that deepens understanding, builds connections, and advances just solutions.” The Service Learning Department had the wonderful opportunity to collaborate with Jasmine Wynn ’23 and Audrey Liu ’22, who had been working with the Climate Museum following their passion to address the climate crisis. Middle School students heard from Jasmine and Audrey and the Climate Museum on how they could affect the climate crisis. The presentation focused on how students can use their voices within the political spectrum to influence the decisions of their district’s politicians.
