Dundalk Elementary Students Highlight Storm Drain Issues

On an early morning last week, a class of fourth-graders from Dundalk Elementary School followed their teacher Kelly Conlon like a gaggle of geese, down the sidewalk outside the school. The children wore special T-shirts from Living Classrooms to commemorate their task for the day.

They were on a mission to improve the neighborhood, transforming an ordinary storm drain into an environmental message for all to see.

Behind the children and their teacher walked a group from the Living Classrooms Foundation, which assists neighborhood schools, integrating education with projects to benefit the neighborhood. Also in line were representatives from the Honeywell Corporation, which funds Living Classroom’s efforts locally.

The children were instructed to stand behind the storm drain. Lorraine Andrews, Living Classrooms' director of the Weinberg Education Center, and her assistants from Living Classrooms, told the children their job was to paint and stencil the storm drain with the words “Don’t Dump” and “Chesapeake Bay Drainage.”

As an added bonus, two special students would be chosen to spray paint a turtle and a fish on either side of the stenciled words.

Students approached the storm drain, two at a time, to perform a particular job—scraping and cleaning the top of the drain for painting, taping off the area to be painted, painting a background of fresh white paint so the drain would stand out to passersby, then stenciling the bright green slogan.

While an individual child did a task, the group played a Jeopardy!-like game with questions from many of the lessons the children have been learning about the Chesapeake Bay.

For each correct answer, the child was given a lima bean. The two children with the most lima beans were given the coveted job of spray painting the green fish and turtle.

The job of stenciling the storm drain “was a way for the children to take ownership of the environment,” said Andrews. “The different activities teach them that they are the stewards of the environment,” she explained.

John Morris, program director for Honeywell, got down and dirty with the kids, painting with the children and taking the brave stance of holding the stencils tightly as each fourth-grader wielded a green spray paint can to write the slogan over the white background.

Living Classrooms works with Logan Elementary as well, and Andrews noted children at Logan Elementary painted a storm drain in their neighborhood as well.

The program targets fourth and fifth graders because, according to Andrews, they are young enough to want to get involved with a cause.

“They’re eager to make a difference in their communities," she said.

She added: “They’ll paint the storm drain, then as they ride by it with friends in a car, they’ll point it out, and they’ll explain why it’s important. They’ll share it with their friends, and the information passes on and on.”

The point of the storm drain activity was to reinforce that anything that goes into the storm drain enters the nearest waterway and eventually affects the Chesapeake Bay. The lessons within and outside of the classroom are meant to present a cause and effect picture to the children.

The lessons don’t begin and end with the storm drain. Living Classrooms visits Dundalk Elementary monthly to augment classroom lessons.

In anticipation of the storm drain painting activity, Conlon has been teaching her students about local watersheds and how various water sources tie together. “We’re also piloting a social studies course that will tie into the geography of the things we’re doing today," Conlon said.

Morris said that Honeywell was eager to get behind a program that puts real-life scientific studies before children. It’s something that will get them excited, he said. Although the children involved are only in fourth grade, Morris admitted the program will ultimately benefit his company.

“Honeywell employees about 2,000 in Maryland," he said, adding that by enhancing science courses locally, “the company is only increasing and enriching its future employee pool.”

This is echoed on the company’s website, which details various math and science programs it sponsors. Recently, Honeywell sponsored 20 middle-school teachers to attend Space Academy, where the teachers were put through all of the training a potential astronaut may face, including a zip line and zero gravity training.

Last year, Honeywell and Living Classrooms were at Dundalk Elementary for another project—planting trees in front of the school.

“The girls named all of the trees,” Morris said.

If nothing else, it ensured the children would remember the lesson.