Released on = April 6, 2006, 12:14 pm

Press Release Author = WJ Carrel

Industry = Education

Press Release Summary = Second grade English language learners to White House April
19, 2006 to receive prestigious U.S. EPA Youth Award for environmental science
project

Press Release Body = FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 5, 2006

Contact: WJ Carrel
authorambassador@aol.com

Second Grade English Language Learners Win Prestigious U.S. EPA Youth Award

Palm Springs, CA – 17 third grade students from Abraham Lincoln (Title 1) Elementary
School in Palm Desert, CA, plus 4 staff members, and families, will travel to
Washington, D.C. to receive the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s President’s
Environmental Youth Award, Region 9, April 19, 2006. The group will accept the
award on the White House grounds for their recycling/composting/gardening
multi-media project “The Wonderful, Weird World of Worms”, produced when the
students were second graders. 50% of the students are English language learners.

“We found the charming DVD and booklet produced by the students to be inspiring and
instructional, as well as very humorous, and couldn’t resist selecting your students
for this prestigious award,” writes Bill Glenn, Chief, Environmental Information and
Education, Office of Public Affairs, US EPA Region 9, San Francisco, CA in his
congratulatory letter to school principal Nelda Esmeralda.

Teachers Linda Reynolds and Judith Grenier incorporate math, science and technology,
with an emphasis on environmental science, in their Voluntary Choice School Program
in the Desert Sands Unified School District. To learn more about vermicomposting
and recycling, the original group of 20 students created an organic waste recycling
project in their classroom, and documented its progress with a book, and on video.
The video has several components. Its purpose is to motivate students and faculty
to participate in the lunch recycling program. “The project has been so successful
that the CD is now being used in other schools,” comments multi-media teacher
Reynolds.

The EPA has 10 regions; only one project is selected per region. Region 9, the most
competitive, with more submissions than all the regions combined, includes not only
California, but Arizona, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada, The Pacific Islands, and 140 Tribal
Nations.

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Web Site = http://

Contact Details = WJ Carrel
Box 1922 Palm Springs, CA 92263-1922
(760)322-0367
authorambassador@aol.com