Teaching the environment
BY STEVE SHEPPARD INDEPENDENT WRITER
When Sarah Elliott moved to Nantucket four years ago one of her first favorable impressions of the island was its trash recycling program. "I loved the fact that people had to recycle," she says.

Elliott: "It's important to remind kids how everything is related." ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent

Her commitment to the environment is evidenced by her deeds. Soon after being hired as a teaching assistant at the high school this year, she learned that the Environmental Awareness Club was in need of a faculty advisor, and she eagerly stepped in.

The club's mission is to educate students about the earth's delicate natural balance and the effects humans have on the planet. Under Elliott's tutelage, the students in the club do not merely talk about solutions, they take action.

Last Saturday, for example, several club participants set up shop in the high school to collect old and unused cell phones, DVD and MP3 players, X-Boxes and Playstations, video cameras, VCRs and laptop computers, among other disposable items of technology. The obsolete or unwanted electronics are to be shipped to a recycling center where precious metals will be salvaged and toxic materials safely disposed of. The club benefits not only from the money it will make from the reclaimed gold, silver, platinum and copper, but from their part in keeping toxic metals like mercury and cadmium out of the landfill.

"It's important to remind kids how everything is related," Elliott noted. Students on Nantucket should be especially mindful of these interrelationships of nature, she said, because its isolation makes it especially fragile - if an ecosystem on Nantucket were to become spoiled, there is no neighboring town to turn to. What is put into the ground eventually makes its way into the aquifer or surrounding ocean. Elliott wants students to learn how the island works - from the landfill to the water supply to where our electrical power comes from.

True to her method of showing, not telling, Elliott helped sponsor a debate two weeks ago featuring people from Clean Power Now and WindStop.Org. Representatives from the two camps addressed several classes and spoke at an assembly that was well received by both students and faculty. For some students, it was their first real exposure to the Nantucket Sound wind farm debate. All Elliott wanted to do was help give students real information about an issue that touched their lives.

Her enthusiasm and commitment is recognized by students, school staff and veteran educators. Principal George Kelly had high praise for the perspective given students by the wind power assembly. Math department chairman Linda Kelly is an active advisor to the Environmental Awareness Club and is "the backbone" of the group, Elliott insists. Cafeteria manager Linda Peterson, a staunch proponent of recycling, also lends support. Fellow teacher Marilyn Barrett introduced Elliott to the "ecophones" fundraiser.

The Environmental Awareness Club meets weekly and, as you might surmise, awareness is growing. Elliott's next mission is to begin a student garden, where pupils from all three schools can benefit from getting involved in real earth studies.

Although her degree is in English, Elliott says her involvement with environmental issues has convinced her that her true calling perhaps lies in science.

"I love the earth, I love nature," she says. "I'd like to start an environmental education program. It's important to remind kids of the basics of life."

The ecophones fundraiser continues at the high school from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Saturday. Drop off your old cell phone or unwanted DVD player. It's good for the

environment, and for the kids. I