THUNDER BAY -- Alexander Geravelis thinks Earth Day is pretty cool.
On Wednesday he joined his classmates for a short tour of the Eco Bus, and learned a little about where electricity comes from.
The Grade 4 students at Kingsway Public School said it’s important to respect the planet.
“If I see garbage on the way home I’ll pick it up and I’ll throw it into the nearest garbage bin. And I’ll make sure that the Earth is healthy and that it’s working great,” the nine-year-old said.
Grade 5 school mate Leif Rissanen agreed there are plenty of ways youngsters can help protect the planet.
“You have to keep the lights off when you don’t need them and don’t throw stuff on the ground,” the 10-year-old said.
Having the Eco Bus visit their school – it also stopped earlier in the day at nearby Hyde Park Public School – was a little inspirational, Leif said.
Featuring a décor that reminded both students of camp, but filled with scientific experiments and pictures of students making windmills and other endeavours, Leif said it was a great place to learn about where Ontario’s energy came from.
Like Alexander, he added Earth Day is a pretty special day for everyone. He’s going to try to do his part to help out.
“That way when we grow up everybody else can have a better world too,” he said.
Taking a day a year to celebrate the environment and the planet is a great way to teach children about how people impact the Earth and its fragile ecosystem.
Cat Leonard, who owns the Eco Bus, said she spent the day doing different activity with the students, from worms and soil samples to alternative energy.
“Today, because it’s not that sunny out, we’re doing wind energy and small scale models of wind turbines and different blades and stuff like that,” Leonard said.
The younger children learn about the planet, the more the lessons will stick.
“The beauty about kids this age is they are super curious,” Leonard said. “They ask fantastic questions and they’re able to understand fairly complex environmental concepts. It gets them hooked, it gets the interested.
“It gets them out of the classroom for a day and it gets them interested in some really cool technology.”
