Mock Town Hall
ADAMS TWP — Fifth graders at the Mars Centennial School participated Thursday in a mock town hall meeting on the effects of pollution on the Chesapeake Bay. The students worked in groups of four or five and portrayed a demographic that affects the bay's health.
The students dressed in costume to portray construction workers, fishermen, dairy farmers, recreational boaters, girls enjoying recreation activities, and business people.
Each group gave a PowerPoint presentation that included the problems caused in the bay by their industry or activity, and ways to deal with those problems.
Their teacher, Sharyn Lipnicky, said the students did all the research, created the entire presentation, and wrote their own speeches for the assignment.
A group of students representing commercial and recreational fishing called their presentation “Something Smells Fishy.” While they listed the benefits of fishing in the Chesapeake Bay as creating jobs, feeding people, learning patience and providing a healthy outdoor activity, they said human and chemical pollution plus over-fishing are detrimental to the bay.
Carrying fishing poles and wearing straw hats, the fishing group took turns explaining how to overcome the problems created by fishing in the bay.
The dairy farmer groups, who dressed in flannel shirts and blue jeans, said overfertilization of farms can pollute the bay when manure runoff makes its way to the water.
The students said erosion and other factors cause the runoff, which in turn causes algae to bloom in the bay's water. In that situation, plants at the bottom of the bay cannot survive.
Student Casey Neff, who portrayed a fisherman, said she was interested to learn how manure runoff can damage the bay. Casey appreciated the assignment, which was much different from the normal classroom work.
“This helps you learn more, because you have to look stuff up and put a PowerPoint presentation together,” she said. “It was fun. We had to be really creative for it.”Her mother, Cindy Neff, held the two fishing poles used by her daughter in the assignment.“I had to go into the shed and dig out the props,” she said.Neff said her daughter was naturally apprehensive about giving a speech for the project, but the experience was positive.“They learned a lot by looking up and presenting the information,” she said.Mitchell Valentine, who portrayed a construction worker, was surprised by the amount of litter humans toss into the delicate Chesapeake.“It helped me learn what happens to the Chesapeake Bay when things run into it, and how people can affect it,” Mitchell said.His mother, Claudine Valentine, said the students did a great job.“It took a lot of preparation and confidence,” she said.Nathan Wadsworth, who also played a construction worker, was shocked at the human pollution in the bay.He said he would remember the facts he learned in the unique assignment.“You might forget things you read, but you remember things you do,” Nathan said.Lipnicky told the parents and students at the mock town hall meeting that she is pleased with the outcome of the project.“I'm really proud of you guys, and I'm sure your families are proud of you too,” she said.Lipnicky said the project gives students an opportunity to tie the curriculum on ecological systems to people who live and work near the bay.“And it gives them a chance to do public speaking,” she said.Centennial School Principal Todd Lape said assignments put into practice can be a very successful learning tool.“If you demonstrate and apply a lesson to a real-life situation, it makes it much more meaningful to the students,” Lape said. “Mrs. Lipnicky does a fantastic job with the mock town hall project.”
