Last modified: Monday, May 3, 2010 12:00 AM

EDT

Hood students win Disney eco prize Donna Whalen’s fifth grade class at the Hood
School in Lynn became the first elementary
By Laura Paine/The Daily Item school in Massachusetts to win the Disney
Planet Challenge by planting this tree as well
LYNN-When Disney decided to take their as creating a play, poems, songs and fliers.
environment competition to the national level, ITEM PHOTO / OWEN O'ROURKE
Donna Whalen’s fifth grade class at the Hood
School proved that they were up to the
challenge, making Hood the first elementary school in Massachusetts to win the state prize.

Disney Planet Challenge (DPC) is a project-based competition designed for fourth, fifth and
sixth grade classrooms to teach kids about science and conservation, while giving them the tools
and encouragement to make a positive impact on their communities. Whalen’s students followed
the DPC rubric to create a 16-page portfolio about the part of their community’s environment
they are most concerned about and what they did to improve the situation.

“In fifth grade, one of the things that we study is the ecosystem,” Whalen said. “I was looking
for things to supplement the curriculum and I came across Disney’s Planet Challenge online. I
looked into it and decided it would be a nice thing to supplement our science curriculum. One
afternoon in the fall, we took a walk in our schoolyard to observe living and non-living things.
We decided we were lacking in a couple of areas and that we wanted to make our schoolyard
eco-system stronger, not only for today but for the future.”

Due to the class’ hard work, Hood will receive a $1,000 grant from Disney and each of the
students will receive a Disney prize pack. Whalen said that the goal now is to take the grant and
return it to the ecosystem around the school.

“Not only was it a very positive project for us but it turned out nice for our whole school
community here at Hood,” she said. “I can’t explain to you what a good, hands-on project it was.
As you get older you realize things a little bit more, but to be chosen as one of the 16 projects in
the United States is pretty cool. They put a lot of work into this project and the enthusiasm from
these guys was just unbelievable.”

As a part of the portfolio, the class created a play, complete with a rap song, a stomp dance,
poems and facts for the first graders. Kayla Reynolds, who said she was really excited about
winning, said the play was her favorite part of the project.

“We got to tell the first graders about what happened and what we did and how to keep it safe,”
Reynolds said.

Student Rashell Quezada learned the most from the Northeast Nursery speaker who came with a
tree and shrubs for the students to plant and explained how they help the ecosystem.
“Once we planted, we had to massage the roots,” Quezada said. “He said the more you massage
the root, the better it grows and the better it comes out. There was a certain root that you can’t
wet and you can’t cover it. If you water it a lot it will break and it won’t grow.”

Mario Rodriguez said that the project was awesome and that the class worked, “very hard on it
and it took a lot of effort and sweat.”

While planting the trees was his favorite part, Rodriguez said he learned a lot when a speaker
from the Massachusetts Audubon Society came with a hawk and an owl for the class to observe.

“It was kind of amazing when I heard about the owls when they couldn’t see, they can’t just look
up like us. They had to turn their head and they could turn their head all the way back,” he said.

The class also welcomed a graduate student from Northeastern University, who spoke about
choosing non-evasive plants to put in their school yard, as they are the best choice for their local
ecosystem. A graphic designer assisted the students in creating a flier about the ecosystem,
which was handed out at CVS. They also conducted a bird feeder experiment in which they
placed different colored pieces of paper around it each day to see which color attracted the most
birds.

“We found it to be a little inconclusive because we found that the birds first needed to discover it
was there,” Whalen said. “We presented it to the School Committee at the very end.”

Vincente Moreno said he was amazed and happy because he never knew that his class would be
the first from Massachusetts to win the DPC, and that he had a lot of fun doing it.

“It was fun because it might be the only time I do it in my life,” he said. “I could remember this
when I’m older, about how fun, and I will miss doing this again.”