Studying Their School's Carbon Footprint

A class of fifth graders is studying their school’s carbon footprint, as part of a schoolwide project.

A greener Goshen is what fifth graders at Model Elementary School are after, and they are finding ways to reduce the school carbon footprint along with their teacher Erik Wolfe, who shared their progress with the Goshen Community Schools board.

Wolfe says that the students are gaining knowledge by investigating a real, authentic problem or challenge that is complex and engaging.

“Project-based learning is really, really big right now,” Wolfe said. “We’ve been working on it for about roughly eight weeks now, and we’ve got a few more weeks to go with it.”

For the past eight weeks, four classes of fifth graders have worked together with Wolfe and fellow teachers to research and brainstorm new ideas to reduce the school’s carbon footprint.

“And the work the students have been doing is pretty impressive,” said teacher Kiera Edwards. “They’ve come up with some pretty neat ideas.”