ACS students participated in a month-long contest focused on promoting recycling that concluded on November 15. Middle school students, under the direction of science teacher Celine Melody, collected bags of recycling from elementary classrooms and administrative offices each week, and weighed and tallied the amount collected as the part of their school’s participation in the state and national Recycle Bowl contest. High school students also collected and tabulated the school’s recycling efforts carried out in classrooms and offices on the second floor of the school building. The Atlantic County Utilities Authority assisted ACS in organizing the contest, which has the goal of establishing and increasing recycling programs and awareness in schools.  Mrs. Melody will be submitting the school’s final tallies for the contest in mid-December.

In addition to the state and national contest, elementary level classes were paired with different middle school classes into four different teams that competed for an intra-school contest to see which team could collect the most recycled items. The combined team of the two kindergarten classes and the 6th grade classes came in first place, collecting a total of 179 pounds of recycling.  The team of Mrs. Coates’ 8B class , Mr. Tardif’s 4B class, and the 5th grade classes came in a close second place, collecting 171 pounds of recycling.

“We’re really proud of the effort and enthusiasm from all of our students during the contest and we want to keep encouraging recycling throughout the rest of the school year,” said Mrs. Melody. The winning classes were announced during chapel on November 30 and each class received an ACUA “Supercan” stuffed toy to keep in their classrooms until next year’s contest. In December, the kindergarten classes will also receive the prize of a movie and popcorn party and the 6th grade class will enjoy a movie and ice cream party.

The theme of recyling and finding ways to re-purpose recycled items carried over into Mrs. Mirakian’s art classes as well.  An 8th grade art class created 3-D tree sculptures made from recycled materials that were put on display in late October in the hallway outside the Art Room. To begin the recycled art project, the students first went outside to look at trees planted in different locations on the school campus. Mrs. Mirakian had the students create a 2-dimensional drawing of one of the trees they had seen, taking note of the tree’s trunk, branches, leaves, and other structural parts, and the surface area surrounding the tree trunk.  The students were then given the task of building a 3-D sculpture based on their drawing and using a variety of recycled materials, such as puzzles pieces, newspaper, bottle caps, old pennies, bubblewrap, and paper towel rolls.