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Earth Day Comes To The Capitol Early With Science Experiments For Students

Thomas Andrew Gustafson
Credit Thomas Andrew Gustafson
Emergency Responder John Johnson lets one student try out using the type of air tank he uses on the job in toxic environments.

Earth Day isn’t until April 22nd, but on Friday the Florida Department of Environmental Protection opened up the courtyard at Florida’s Capitol to local students to learn about science careers and protecting the Environment.

Under a tent lined with caution tape in the Capitol Building Courtyard you’ll find emergency responder John Johnson with his oxygen tank.  The kids are local elementary students testing out breathing through the tank’s facemask.

There are two types of booths at the event: those promoting science careers and those promoting environmental safety and stewardship. Johnson along with emergency responder Jennifer Paris are part of the latter – teaching kids about the work they do cleaning up hazardous areas. With them, Amanda Hartsfield of the Office of Emergency Response explained what they wanted to get across to the students, “Well, our main interest is letting the public know who we are and what we do. And just making sure that they understand we’re out there to clean up the environment. And to know who we are so when they see us, they know usually there’s something hazardous going if we’re on scene,” she said.

On the other side were booths like Hal Lunsford’s. He’s with the Department of Environmental Protection normally teaching construction workers about erosion and sediment control.

The experiment involves pouring water with all sorts of muck in it through a cloth filter showing how the filter attempts to capture the muck before it passes through into the environment. Lunsford says with his experiment he wanted not only get to kids interested environmental jobs, but in keeping the environment clean regardless of their career path.

“And so it makes a better environment because it gets the construction folks on our side of the equation. Environmentalists and Construction have been in opposition to each other, they can actually be together and that’s what we’re trying to do,” Lunsford said.

In fact, most of the booths focused on the simple steps students could do now to protect the environment. Tom Harrah manages the Sea Mobile – a small aquarium on wheels. He said, “We’re teaching children and the public about why it’s important to protect coastal watersheds for our own water supply and for marine animals as well.”

By bringing the marine life to the students, Harrah said, there’s a better appreciation for what the kids are saving when they do the little things to keep the water clean, “Such as when you brush your teeth you only want to turn the water on as you wet your toothbrush. Take about 5 minute showers every day. When you wash your car, you want to wash it over a grassy area, that way all that soap run gets filtered out into the soil and doesn’t get into the water system.”

Earth Day at the Capitol went all school-day long for local elementary, middle, and high schools.