Student Rainbarrel Project

Lilly Lowther, Danielle Gaudino
and Katherine Knight pose 
with the rain barrel and Center
Executive Director Catherine Timko.

Just in time for Earth Day last week, students in Mrs. Martha Fisher’s third grade class from Westerly Elementary School in Bay Village dropped off a rain barrel, beautifully painted with flowers and insects. Lake Erie Nature & Science Center is one of several locations around town displaying the students' handiwork, complete with an educatonal message about the benefits of rain barrels (like reduction of erosion, pollution and flooding).

The class is selling each rain barrel  for $100 with the proceeds going to the Bay Education Foundation. If you're interested in buying a decorated rain barrel you can contact Mrs. Fishers class at 440-617-7578. Nice work students and thanks for sharing your work with our visitors!

CSI + Carousel + Shredding = Busy Saturday!

Carousel, Shredding and CSI all contributed to an incredible, successful Saturday for Lake Erie Nature & Science Center.

More than 100 area residents took advantage of our latest residential Shredding Day, saving more than 55 trees by recycling 3.25 tons of paper. The Shredding Network of Wickliffe, which donated use of the mobile shredder for the morning, also estimates this single morning of recycling efforts kept 9.75 cubic yards of landfill out of the trash, stopped 195 pounds of air pollutants and saved 65 gallons of water.

Meanwhile, at Bay High School, the volunteer Women's Board of Lake Erie Nature & Science Center staged another successful Christmas

Carousel Holiday Festival to support our nonprofit mission. The long-running Carousel attracts artists, crafters and quality vendors, including the great twinkling holiday bottles and cork wreaths using recycled materials pictured above left. The other photo features Women's Board members Doris Kurz, Nancy Black, who was Carousel Cafe Chair, and Deb Barnum.

Back at the Center, we welcomed 550 Girls Scouts representing 75 troops from across Northeast Ohio for CSI: The Case of the Missing Thin Mints. This fun forensic science program was just one of the special offerings we have for scouts throughout the year!

Oh, and we also kicked off Winter Session Program Registration for Members and conducted most of our popular planetarium programs.

Quite a Saturday! Thanks to everyone involved!

Shredding Day Green Impact

If you are one of the 250 people who brought paper to our Shredding Day on Saturday, here's how your collective actions impacted the environment. According to Shredding Network, they collected 4.9 tons of paper, saving 83.3 trees and keeping 14.4 cubic yards of material out of landfills. Shredding Network also estimates 294 pounds of air pollutants and 98 gallons of water were saved through our 3-hour event. All that, plus smart protection from identity theft.

Thanks again to everyone who participated. If you missed this one or have more to recycle, we have another Shredding Day coming up on Saturday, November 6... same place, same time!

Free Public Event Focuses On Climate and Carbon

A variety of distinquished speakers and discussion workshops are open to the public as part of the Sustainability Symposium: Climate and Carbon being held March 1 - 2 at Baldwin Wallace College in Berea. This dynamic two-day event will bring together world-renowned leaders, prominent Northeast government representatives, experts and community members (like you!) to discuss the issues surrounding energy, climate and carbon and how they affect our health and the economic vitality of our region.

 All events listed below and in more detail at the Sustainability Symposium website are free and open to the public.

Monday, March 1, 10 a.m.
Sandstone III, Strosacker Hall, College Union 120 E. Grand St.

Senator Sherrod Brown shares his vision for a clean energy economy in northeast Ohio and beyond.

Monday, March 1, 8 pm.
Kulas Musical Arts Building, 96 Front St.
Keynote by Dr. Susan Solomon, senior scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Earth System Research Laboratory and the lead U.S. scientist for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body that provides scientific and policy analysis on climate change.

Tuesday, March 2
Strosacker-Hall, College Union, 120 E. Grand St.
Concurrent panel sessions will take place in the morning and afternoon.

• It’s Real if We Can Measure It:
   The Metrics of Corporate Sustainability
   10-11:30 a.m. - Sandstone III
• Carbon and Food Systems:
   How One Large Industry Can Make a Difference
   10 - 11:30 a.m. - Quarry Room
• Prospects for a Clean Energy Industry in NE Ohio
   1-2:30 p.m. - Sandstone III
• Small Businesses:How to Get Started
   1-2:30 p.m. - Quarry Room

Tuesday, March 2, 3 p.m.
Sandstone III, Strosacker Hall, College Union, 120 E. Grand St.
Chris Connor, CEO of Sherwin-Williams Corporation will share his company's success producing a line of environmentally preferred paint.

Shredding Results

The results from Lake Erie Nature and Science Center's summer Shredding Day show how little efforts joined together can make a difference. More than 200 area residents particpated, bringing boxes and bags of old paper for shredding and recycling in Shredding Network's state-of-the-art mobile truck.

In three hours time, we collected and prepared 5.2 tons of material for recycling. Repurposing that 5.2 tons of material resulted in the following impact:

• Saved 88.4 trees


• Prevented 15.6 cubic yards of landfill


• Kept 312 pounds of air pollutants out of the air we breath
  
• Saved 104 gallons of water

On top of the environmental impact, participants gave more than $1,000 in donations. Thanks to Shredding Network, which donated the use of their truck, 100% of the proceeds go directly to fund our non-profit mission.

We hope you'll keep recycling!

Old Cartridges, iPods & Cell Phones Add Up

Did you know that our non-profit organization can benefit from your old cell phones, PDAs, laptops, iPods and depleted HP and Dell printer cartridges? You can drop these items off at our front desk and we'll not only send them off for recycling/reuse, but we'll convert them into merchandise credits or cash donations for Lake Erie Nature & Science Center. Printer cartridges must be HP or Dell brand.

We'll also be collecting printer cartridges, mobile phones, iPods and laptops at our July 25 Shredding Day. Thanks for recycling and rethinking how easy it is to make a difference to a worthy cause!

Food for thought: more than 1.1 billion inkjet cartridges are used annually around the world - laid end to end this would be 129 times as long as the Great Wall of China!

Environmental Extravaganza May 23

We have a late addition to our roster of family-friendly programs coming up later this month. Members of the Lee Burneson Middle School Environmental Club in Westlake will bring their lively “LBMS Environmental Extravaganza” to Lake Erie Nature & Science Center on Saturday, May 23 at 7 p.m.

The public performance will feature students in grades 7 and 8, who have spent the entire school year writing, rehearsing and recording music, choreographing dance and creating short plays – all with a “green theme.” The program also includes a mini fashion show featuring handmade accessories and clothing constructed from pop tabs and other recycled materials.

Students will also screen an inspiring, short video and share readings from creative student authors. The club's award-winning director, Daniel Grigson, will cap off the performances with his own captivating, live music.

You are encouraged to bring the whole family -- or at least those who will enjoy a fun 1-hour and 30-minute performance -- to see what this amazing group of young people has accomplished! The club recently received national recognition for their efforts, winning a 2009 Sea World/Busch Gardens Environmental Excellence Award. Mr. Grigson and a group of students went to Florida on May 1 to accept the award, which came with a $10,000 grant.

Tickets are $7 and include a reception with refreshments following the performances. Lake Erie Nature & Science Center will accept walk-in or phone registration between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily. Call 440-871-2900 for more information or to sign up. Seating is limited so reserve your space early! The Center is located at 28728 Wolf Road in Bay Village.

After School Adventures Beach Sweep

“I was surprised by all the trash we found!” “Why would someone just leave it(aluminum can)?” “This(cigarette butt) is gross!” “People swim here!” “Why is this(battery) here?” "Where does all of this(beach litter) come from?" Those were just some of the heart-felt questions and comments made by my students during a non-typical "day-at-the-beach." Non-typical in that we were there not to play or relax but to investigate and “take action.” On October 7th, nine of my students from Lake Erie Nature & Science Center’s After School Adventures Club (Grades 3 & 4) enthusiastically spent part of their class cleaning-up(as part of their Beach Sweep Inquiry Action Project) a section of our beautiful, neighboring Huntington Beach.
During our classes prior to the Beach Sweep, we discussed the importance of keeping Lake Erie and its beaches litter-free, how litter negatively effects not only the environment and wildlife but also humans, communities, and the economy, and what we both as a class and as individuals can do to reduce beach litter and stop our trash from becoming litter in the first place. We referred to Miami University’s Project Dragonfly’s Dragonfly Quest program for guidance during our investigation.
Question and observe
Uncover comparative questions
Explore predictions
Start action plan and gather data
Think hard about finding and share discoveries

After we swept the beach, we then counted, tallied, and recorded the items with the aid of The Alliance for the Great Lakes’ Adopt-a-Beach Litter Monitoring Form. In only 30 minutes, and along only 235 yards of Huntington Beach, we collected over 600 pieces of trash that weighed-in at almost 4 pounds!
Some of the items we picked up:
270 Cigarettes
118 Plastic Cigarette Filters
60 Plastic Caps
20 Straws
20 Food Wrappers
9 Firework Debris
8 Balloons on Strings
4 Aluminum Cans
3 Plastic Spoons
2 Batteries
1 Pill Bottle

These and the other items we collected from Huntington Beach are now part of our class’s Beach Sweep Project Display, which is located in Lake Erie Nature & Science Center's Teacher Resource Center for the remainder of the year.

During your next visit to the Center, please stop by our Display to see and learn more about what we did and discovered, in addition to, what we would like for YOU to do to help us keep our Great Lake GREAT!

For additional information on:

our After School Adventures Club program, please visit http://www.lensc.org/education/UpcomingEvents.aspx?id=27

future Adopt-a-Beach events at Huntington Beach, visit:
http://www.lensc.org/education/child-family/Family.aspx
or contact Carla Roth at Carlar@Lensc.org or (440) 871-2900 Ext. 221.
The Alliance For The Great Lakes Adopt-a-Beach program

visit http://www.greatlakes.org/

Green Your Holidays

Get the whole family involved in making some recycled gifts and learn how to "green up" the season during our Make It A Green Holiday family workshop coming up this Saturday, November 15 at noon. You do have to sign up in advance for this event, but the cost is a mere $5 per family. You'll also need to supply your own 2 liter bottle and old Cd's to use in your take home projects.
For a whole list of Green Holiday ideas and more Center news, read the latest issue of Nature Notes, our bi-monthly newsletter for class and program participants.

Shredding Day Thank You!

The first-ever Shredding Day sponsored by Lake Erie Nature & Science Center on Saturday enabled more than 150 area families to safely dispose of old confidential documents without worrying about identity theft or landfill waste.
The Shredding Network of Wickliffe donated the use of their state-of-the-art mobile shredding truck for the morning, so 100% of the donations for the service went to our non-profit organization.
The best part is that all those bags and boxes of paper (4.6 tons worth!) are now shredded, bailed and on their way to a paper mill to make new paper products! Shredding Network estimates that by recycling 4.6 tons of paper, we saved 78.2 trees and 13.8 cubic yards of landfill!

A win-win morning for everyone involved! Thanks to Dana Mueller and the Shredding Network who hope to make this an annual event in Bay Village. Keep recycling!

Huntington Beach Clean Up A Success!

About 25 volunteers of all ages answered Lake Erie Nature & Science Center's call to help clean and monitor the health of Huntington Beach in Bay Village. The Center is led an official adopt-a-Beach clean-up on Saturday, September 6. Carla Roth, who led the effort for the Center, guided volunteers in picking up garbage along the Lake Erie shoreline and counting and tallying the litter. The finished data will be sent to the Adopt-a-Beach program, which is spearheaded by the Chicago- based Alliance for the Great Lakes.
“The final tabulations compiled by Adopt-a-Beach officials will give us insight into how healthy our lakes are, and what else we can do to take action,” said Roth, Education Program & Administrative Specialist. Carla also waded in to Lake Erie to take water samples for some simple and sophisticated tests, including a screen for E coli bacteria.” Thanks to everyone who turned out!

Read more about the clean up in WestLife or in our online newsroom.

Adopt-a-Beach Huntington Beach

Nothing beats a gorgeous sunset over Lake Erie! If you love our great lake and want to keep our beaches clean and healthy, join our team! Lake Erie Nature & Science Center is enlisting the help of families to clean and monitor the health of Huntington Beach in Bay Village. The Center is leading an official Adopt-a-Beach clean-up on Saturday, September 6. Children ages 8 and up with at least one adult are encouraged to join the cleaning crew from 10 a.m. to noon.

Carla Roth, who’s leading the effort for the Center, says volunteers will spend the morning picking up garbage along the Lake Erie shoreline and counting and tallying the litter. The finished data will be sent to the Chicago-based Adopt-a-Beach program spearheaded by the Alliance for the Great Lakes. "The final tabulations compiled by Adopt-a-Beach will give us insight into how healthy our lakes are, and what else we can do to take action,” said Roth. “During the morning, we’ll also be assessing the quality of the Lake Erie water using both simple and sophisticated tests, including a screen for E coli bacteria.”

The guided volunteer program is free, but you are encouraged to let the Center know you’re planning to be part of the crew in advance. Call 440-871-2900 with questions or to sign up.