Heat Energy

Students are learning about how our school receives and distributes energy so our school is warm and has electrical energy for our lights and machines.

Halloween...A little late

Hi, Parents,

We're a little late with this post, but we had some requests for pictures.  We had a great time at the party!  Thank you to all the parents who sent supplies or helped manage the game and snack stations.  We couldn't have done it without you!

Emmet County Transfer Station Field Trip

We had a wonderful, educational experience at the Recycling Center.  First we checked out where people bring their items to be recycled.  We saw bins for plastic, paper, and metal.

Then we went inside the facility to see where the trucks dump all the paper and plastic and metal.  We were amazed to learn that the huge piles we saw were collected in just one week.

Conveyor belts transport the materials inside the main building for further sorting.  Workers sift through the items, putting everything into its correct bin.  This is one of the great things about recycling... it takes many more people to staff than a landfill would, so not only is recycling great for the environment, it's good for the economy too.  Recycling creates jobs! 

In this picture, Michelle is letting us feel a water main cover made at East Jordan Iron Works.  They are just one company that uses recycled material in the production of something new.  Through the windows on the right, we had a bird's eye view of the entire process.

This is one of the sorting rooms.  Plastic is sorted on the left, and metal sorted on the right.  The day we were there, workers were sorting paper in a different room.

At the end of the tour, we saw where the materials are baled and loaded onto semi trucks for transfer to factories that will use the materials in the manufacture of new products.  

The kids learned so much at this field trip.  The next step for us is to discuss our new learning and make posters to share with the rest of Sheridan kids.  We will be giving presentations to each classroom, sharing what we learned about recycling.

We would like to thank the Emmet County Recycling Staff for making this field trip possible.  They generously offer scholarships for busing!  Thank you Lindsay and Michelle for the great tour.  We would also like to thank our many parent volunteers for coming with us.  You, too, helped make this trip a success!