FAIRHOPE, Ala. - A fifth-grade class at J. Larry Newton has much to teach us about being good citizens and better stewards of our planet.

This past year, teacher Ashley McPhillips’ 23 students designed and put into action a successful project to reduce litter at the school and, in the process, showed what a small group of committed people working together effectively can do.

Their yearlong project won the 2010-2011 Disney Planet Challenge for all elementary schools in Alabama.

“My students decided that they needed to do something about the amount of trash being left on the playground at our school,” McPhillips said. “They researched the effects of trash on the environment, developed a plan to involve all of the students at our school to help, implemented the plan, collected data on the result, and reported the positive results to the school. They documented all of their efforts via the digital portfolio that they submitted to the Disney Planet Challenge national competition.”

That portfolio included a 14-slide PowerPoint presentation and describes the “Trash Tracker” research and results displayed convincingly through spread sheets, graphs, photos, and an engaging chronicle of their successful work during the past year.

“Your class should be very proud,” said Laurie Monserrat of the Disney Planet Challenge Team. “The Trash Trackers project done by the fifth-graders at J. L Newton elementary school competed for the national grand prize. It was very close. Great job representing your state!”

The contest required a detailed explanation of how the project met the objectives of national, state and local course objectives. Each of the PowerPoint slides demonstrates how the specific work fulfilled those certain standards and requirements.

“Success of the project required the understanding of numerous objectives at the state level as well as the national level in science, mathematics, and technology.” McPhillips stated in her project summary. “It is vital to successful learning that students see and understand the applicability of the academic standards they are learning.”

Through the project, her students also learned some valuable life lessons, she said.

“My students are much more aware of their own ability to have an impact on something important,” McPhillips said. “They are not ‘just kids’ in their own minds. They know that through their own actions they have been able to accomplish something that has made a visible difference to everyone at their school.”

In addition to mobilizing the school and learning about the problem through guest speakers, field trips and research, they also made recommendations to a national corporation on how it could improve its environmental footprint, and provided a prototype of a less polluting juice pouch as an example.

“Not only did the class learn from their own research, teamwork, and guest speakers, but they also educated other students throughout Newton School,” said Newton School Principal Patrice Wolfe. “The amount of trash on our campus dramatically decreased, and we are proud that Mrs. McPhillips and her class have been recognized for their outstanding efforts in the Disney Planet Challenge.”

In their digital portfolio for the project, the students explained how they learned that most of the trash of the school was left, not by adults, but by students. They described what it meant to recognize their own role in that problem and the need for taking responsibility to make a difference – and not leave it to someone else.

“Through her class, students identified a problem related to them and then became actively engaged in collecting data and researching the topic,” said Suellen Brazil, former Newton principal until she became Elementary Executive Principal for Baldwin County Public Schools last fall. “It was quite exciting to find that the students did not stop there. They developed graphs and various presentations and then collaborated on what they could do to bring about positive change. These young students are not only in command of the concepts required of them as fifth-graders, but they are also developing the skills needed to be strong, active citizens of tomorrow.”

 For more information about the Disney Planet Challenge, visit www.dpcproject.com or www.youtube.com/Disneychallenge.