The Pulaski County School System’s gifted students are teaching their peers and adults about the environment, thanks to a partnership between PRIDE and the Pulaski Gifted Center. So far, they have mentored over 500 students, and they will reach hundreds of people during presentations at Wal-Mart in February and March.
In December, approximately 180 fifth-grade gifted students taught the district’s 500 fourth-graders about the “three Rs” – Reducing, Reusing and Recycling. PRIDE representatives visited the Gifted Center to help the fifth-graders understand the topics and prepare exhibits to share their knowledge.
Elizabeth Morrow, Pulaski County’s PRIDE Environmental Education liaison, accompanied the students when they made their presentations.
Over four Fridays, beginning Feb. 26, the county’s fourth-grade gifted students will educate Wal-Mart customers about the importance of recycling, the effects of plastic on the environment and the benefits of using eco-friendly shopping bags. They worked with PRIDE representatives to develop a PowerPoint presentation, video, brochure and exhibit boards.
This unique outreach project was made possible by a Wal-Mart grant secured by Mardi Montgomery, the Pulaski County School Board’s Director of Special Program, in collaboration with Lynn Ashbrook and Cindy Merrick, co-directors of the Pulaski Gifted Center.
“It will be amazing to learn the number of Wal-Mart customers from our community who will be educated on environmental issues as these students conduct their presentations,” Ashbrook said.
Ashbrook and Merrick appreciated PRIDE’s collaborative effort on the mentoring and outreach projects.
“The PRIDE representatives were knowledgeable and very effective in working with students. The information received by the students was exceptional,” Merrick said.
“The students were very attentive and seemed to want to learn more and more,” said Morrow. “Working with children who show such enthusiasm towards the environment made teaching and helping them a great experience for everyone! I enjoyed working with the Gifted Center. Ms. Merrick and Ms. Ashbrook were very accommodating and a pleasure to work with.”
“This collaboration shows that a few PRIDE representatives and educators can empower hundreds of students to change our environment,” said Jennifer Johnson, PRIDE program director. “There’s great ‘bang for the buck’ when schools partner with PRIDE.”
The Pulaski Gifted Center brings together the gifted fourth and fifth-graders from Pulaski County School System’s eight elementary schools. In bi-weekly rotations, the students experience hands-on lessons in science, technology, engineering and math. This school year, the emphasis of study is environmental and biomedical engineering, and the center turned for assistance to the PRIDE Environmental Education Outreach Program.
The PRIDE Environmental Outreach Program is available to Pulaski County, Somerset and Science Hill schools through a partnership with the Pulaski County Fiscal Court. The program increases children’s environmental knowledge by providing lessons tied to Kentucky Core Content and involving students in cleanup activities. Liaisons take the program to third through fifth-grade classes, with an emphasis on fourth-graders who are tested on science in the state’s annual CATS testing. Since November, Morrow has taught 26 instruction hours with 406 local elementary students on a variety of environmental topics.
For the schedule of presentations at Wal-Mart, please call Mardi Montgomery at 679-1123. For more information about PRIDE, please contact the PRIDE office at 677-6150 or
PRIDE@centertech.com
Local News
Related Photos
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PRIDE’s Sara Gilbert (left) and Elizabeth Morrow (second from left) listened to fifth-graders at the Pulaski Gifted Center practice the solid waste presentations they later would deliver at their schools.
Gifted students share PRIDE in schools, Wal-Mart
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Big Bang Theory
Pulaski County is not at war. The booming you may hear at dusk is mock cannon fire to scare away birds.
Stuart Spillman, environmental director for the Lake Cumberland Health Department, said at least three cannons are on loan from the department to residents who want to scare away swarms of starlings and blackbirds settling in to roost.
He said a cannon is being used by a resident on Laura Lane off Ky. 39; another is in the Oak Hill Road area and a third is on Ashurst Street in the eastern part of Somerset.
Spillman said a timer on each cannon allows it to “fire” at whatever frequency is desired. The cannons must be used as the birds circle before going to roost. “After they settle in, nothing will chase them out,” Spillman said.
The Health Department doesn’t operate the cannons unless there is a specific complaint in an area where there are lots of birds, Spillman noted. He said so far this year the birds are not as bad as in the past. -
Boil water advisory is lifted countywide
The water controversy that Pulaski County has been boiling over — so to speak — for the last week is finally over.
At 10 minutes after noon Wednesday, the “boil water” advisory for the Western Pulaski Water District was lifted — almost a full week after the problems began around 1 p.m. last Thursday.
Prior to that, the Somerset Water Service — along with the other water providers in its system, including Science Hill Water, Southeastern Water, and Eubank Water — lifted their advisories, with Somerset on Saturday afternoon and the last, Southeastern, by Monday morning. Western Pulaski was the last in the system to complete sample testing for potential contaminants, due to not being able to access its Pikeville-based testing lab until Monday.
Somerset Mayor Eddie Girdler thanked the public for its patience and understanding during the duration of the boil water advisory — put in place to keep citizens from drinking water that could have been contaminated after an accident last Thursday at the water plant site — and also thanked all the city employees for their hard work during this time.
“The boil water advisory went about as well as would be expected,” said Girdler.
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