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Earthfest Highlights Held Virtually

Earth Day poster designed by Samantha Stevens, a student at Panama Central School.

Earthfest, Jamestown Community College’s annual celebration of Earth Day, may have been canceled this year due to the COVID-19 crisis, but the program’s highlights were conducted in virtual settings.

Students in JCC’s Earth Awareness Club have sponsored Earthfest each April since the 1990s, bringing to campus educational activities and presenters to interact with students and the community.

An Earth Day poster contest, conducted annually by the Earth Awareness Club among fourth grade students at Panama Central School and C.C. Ring School in Jamestown, also resulted in a virtual format this year. Photos of posters were submitted by parents for consideration.

Contest winners, who received a one-year Ranger Rick magazine subscription, included Lillian Abers, Alexis Becker, Leah Boardman, Lucy Bullaro, Oliver Burgeson, Arick Feldt, Sophie Hummel, Zander Lombardo, Konner Morgan, Sam Ryan, Samantha Stevens, Nicole Weaver, and Gage Wells of Panama and Giana Cusimano of C.C. Ring.

The poster contest began in 2000 as part of an educational outreach effort by Earth Awareness members who provided hands-on lessons related to the environment and environmental issues to Panama fifth graders. Although participation has been expanded to other elementary schools, the contest has found a home with fourth grade students at Panama.

The Panama fourth graders are also involved in Science Connections, a college course in which JCC students design hands-on physics, biology, chemistry, and geology/earth science lessons for children. The course is taught by JCC biology professor Jan Bowman who is also a co-advisor of the Earth Awareness Club with assistant professor of biology Andy Pitoniak. The course was developed as a STEM outreach initiative by JCC physics professor Marie Plumb and has been directed by Bowman since Plumb’s retirement several years ago.

As a result of COVID-19 restrictions, Science Connections students developed at-home science activities that teachers and parents of fourth graders at Panama and C.C. Ring can use at home.

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