Welcome To Our Blog!

In conjunction with the Center for Environment, Economy and Society of Columbia University and Ms. Kim Baker we are studying environmental issues regarding sustainability. We will be blogging to report our learning and observations. Keep an eye on our blog as we examine critical issues regarding our environmental future.

EARTH

class 612, Mr Damon, ms Baker are studying the earth and how we can keep it a sustainable for everyone to live in it. For us to gather more information about this we did many things such as going to the Borough Hall green market to see where we get our fruits and vegetables an from that we learned that our fruits and vegetables are local meaning that they come from about 200miles away. we also did a experiment on cleaning dirty water and we learned that cleaning water isn't something easy to do. This unit of study is happening currently at the secondary school for journalism in Brooklyn New York. We are doing this to keep a sustainable earth and community for every one to live in


Santiago Alonso

Food

Class 612 is studying food. we are doing this for us to learn if there is an even amount of food for everybody to have. This study is happening currently in the Secondary school of Journalism. In order for us to get more information on this subject we went on a trip to the Borough Hall Green Market to learn about where does our fruits and vegetables come from and which are healthy for us to eat. What I have learned from this trip is that most of the fruits and vegetables come from 200 miles away from local farms and that they are fresh picked. The reason why we are doing this is to keep a healthy and sustainable enviorment and because we have to.

FARMERS MARKET!

Today we learned about the fresh and healthy foods from the farmers market. Just yesterday we went on a trip with the 7th graders to the farmers market at jay street, Borough Hall. When we went there what I learned was that there are many different farmers markets all over the world in and out of New York the state. What I also learned was that there foods are locally grown and are produced.Then today we were taste tasting apples from the super market and farmers market and we wrote in our journals on how it taste smelled and felted. I thought that the farmers markets apples were better tasting because they were locally grown and smelled better along with felt alot harder and cruncher then the super markets apples because they had no taste and weren't juicy enough to call them apples.By the way if you ever go to the farmers market and its 31 degrees cold always were a coat!

Learning

Mr.Damon has been helping us understand the meaning of sustainability. I feel that everyday we go to ELA I develop more about sustainability and the reason why water is so hard to clean now I know because that's what Mr.Damon is here for to help us learn about sustainability and more.

The Danger

In class 612, we are learning about dirty water, and how we can clean it. In Brooklyn NY, the Gowanus Canal is so filthy, that if you touch the water in there you can easily catch a disease.

The Gowanus canal has 1,000s of dangerous chemicals, and objects that are unsafe, to the environment, and to all of it's surrounding. The government is trying to clean the bodies of water that are filthy. We are learning this because we want the future, to be cleaner and safer for us, and other people in the world. We also learned, that to save water, we have to fix the leaks,turn off the tap water,take showers for less minutes, and instead of using a hose, to wash your car, you can use a bucket and a sponge.

Class 612, in Brooklyn, are learning about how to make the water clean. We made some thing that can clean the water so we can use it. How can we save water to help people? We can reduce our use of water. We can reduce our water by fixing the leak by putting a color in the water to find the leak. You can turn off the tap water when you are brushing.

The Dangerous Unsustainable Water Problem

In class 612 we were talking about water and how dangerous the issue has become.Water is so important because our body,our plants,and our animals need it. Doing an experiment I learned that water is very hard to clean. My water foot print could be much better.You should check your footprint and check if it is sustainable.Don't leave the water running, you can make a difference by just turning a knob.

Class 612,in Brooklyn is learning about how to make water clean. We learned about the Gowanus canal which is located in Red Hook. We should care about water because a lot of people don't have clean water. Also, we did an experiment on how can we make water clean, but our result were that we can make water clean because we need strong chemicals. We also,learned about water footprint which is when we answer a lot of questions of how to save water. To reduce you can turn off the tap water, using less water, fixing the leak as fast as possible and to wash yourbike or car with a bucketandsponge.

Our water cleaning Experiment

In class 612 we have been doing a experiment on how to clean water. We are trying to clean the water to see what real people that have a job to clean the water have to go through. We had to bring in 2 liter bottles and use objects to help us clean the water. My group used the following materials.

• Cotton Balls
• Coffee Filter
• Charcoal
• Sand
• Scrubber sponge
• yellow sponge

All theses materials I just listed were very useful in this experiment. My groups results were not very good. We were supposed to clean the water the only things that were clean was the dirt the dirt was out of the water the color was the same and the smell. There were only two differences in our results from before. From this experiment I learned that you have to have the right supplies because water is very hard to clean.

Our clean water experment

In class 612" The hleping hand", we have learn how do clean water. We divided into four group, to try clean water. I learn about people have to working to water.First we need to bring a big bottle. My group use the material have: spongs, cotton ball, charcaol, and the coffee filter. Then we put dirty water into these material, but the result is only some leave and small stone was clean, the water's color was not change. For this experiment, I learn about the the water was so difficult to clean. In real life, we need mountain water clean.

Sustainability

In SSJ Brooklyn, class 612 ("The Helping Hands"), are learning about sustainability, currently. We are trying to understand the meaning of sustainability. Sustainability is to maintain a healthy environment for as long as we possibly can. We are studying sustainability, because our teacher Mr.Damon is making us study it, so we can try to save what is left of the world.

the use of water

Trying to save water is important because every time you flush a toilet your wasting a couple of gallons of water.What i learned about trying to clean water is that it very hard to clean and if you waste and dirty water its going to get even harder. Then it already is! I just learned that I'm wasting alot of water by just taking a nice long shower I'm wasting tons of water. Even when I flush a toilet I'm wasting water. So I decided to try to save water. What we can do to save water is that we can take shorter showers (but make sure your clean), we can try to not flush the toilet as much as we already do, we can try to drink tap water instead of bottled, finally we can try too wash our cars with a bucket of water and a sponge instead of using a hose. Trying to save water is like trying to save NYC!

helping water

Class 612 has been learning about the water use in the world and how is it important to use less water then we always use which includes during our showers, drinking, and brushing your teeth. we are doing this so we can all have the same amount of water for everybody in the world. This is happening recently which means we are doing this mostly every day. We are also learning that many people around New York city is trying to clean up every dirty bodies of water for example the Gownus canal in Brooklyn (near Red Hook) is trying to be cleaned up because it is so dirty and it is bad for everyone around the Gownus Canal. We have also learned that in order to save our water we are suppose to turn off the Tap, Shower power, Fix that Leaks around your house and instead of using hoses to clean your car or house you should use a bucket and a sponge.

water!

In class 612 we have been learning about how to keep are water clean and how important it is. The value of trying to keep our earths water clean is very important because we should keep it clean so we have clean drinking , bathing ,and brushing your teeth, and more. Recently we had made footprints in our notebooks and we had to try write the important things we need in life like clean water and food, shelter, and more . what i have learned from our water footprint that you could take shorter showers and turning off the tap when not need. Lastly we had finished making the filters for our dirty water and the results were horrible . The water still turned out the same but the blue stuff from the top disappeared but the smell still stayed the same. That's what we learned in class 612.

THE ENVIRONMENT

In my class 612 we are learning about the word sustainability. I think that it means all of the elements that people like us really need. We had made a chart about our most important elements which were food, water, energy, shelter, and getting rid of the waste.We had this person, Ms. Baker who came to our school and she had worked at other schools and she helped us with learning about these things. We also have been learning about the 5 W's which are What, Were, Who, When, and Why. All of these things are to show about our environment. Lastly we have been paired up into groups presently to create filters to try and clean our waters. Our materials were things that can be used to make the water cleaner and smell better. And that's what we have been learning in my class : THE ENVIRONMENT!

sustainability

At class 612, we learned about the sustainability. The sustainability means to maintain a healthy environment for everybody and everything as we can . Also, it is for air, energy, water, food etc. Mr. Damon was making it because we have to try to save what is left of world.

Problems we face

We in 612 are going to talk to you about sustainability. Sustainability is to maintain a healthy environment for a long period of time.We hope to bring this to the attention of our readers.
We hope to prevent anything bad in the future.
Kiara S. Brooklyn, NY

sustainability

In class we have been learning about sustainability and what it means. Today, Wednesday the 26th I did a sustainability worksheet and noticed that they are growing more trees but still are knocking down forest. We also did pie charts on a video we watched. I did a pie chart on food and I had to show on the pie chart how many people were always hungry, how many people were sometimes hungry, and how many people were never hungry. We also read articles for examples of sustainability. We read an article about reusable bags and how they have a high level of lead in them. Over the past few weeks we have been learning about sustainability.

sustainability/the 5 W's

My class (612) are studying the environment so that we can make it a nice and sustainable environment. We are doing this in the Secondary School for Journalism in Mr.Damon's class room. This is happening currently. Why we are doing this is because we want to keep a healthy environment.

What We're Doing

Class 612 or "The Helping Hands" are studying the environment and how can we keep it a sustainable environment. This is happening in our ELA room at the Secondary School for Journalism. This event is going on currently - mainly every day. We are doing this so we can keep a healthy and clean environment so we could live for very long. Another reason why we are doing this is because we want to keep the parts left of our world very safe.
Santiago A.