It’s been a big year for the environment at Shipley. A group of students were able to breathe new life into the School’s recycling program; the Green Gators Upper School environmental club won $50,000 in a national environmental competition; the cafeteria went green with biodegradable disposables, organic milk, and local produce; and Earth Day turned into Earth Week. The 2007-2008 school year just might go down in history as a watershed for raising environmental awareness at the School.

On Wednesday, April 16, Shipley kicked off Earth Week with a screening of Leonardo DiCaprio’s The 11th Hour, a documentary about human impact on the environment and the potential for positive change. Many parents, students, and faculty members were in attendance.

Spring Thing, Shipley’s annual environmental service day, took place on Saturday, April 19. Students, teachers, and parents participated in a host of service projects throughout the area. At Lower School, they planted flowers and an herb garden. In the Yarnall Gym circle, students used environmentally-friendly cleaning products to wash cars and raise money for the Alliance for Climate Protection. Shipley students could also be found roaming the streets of Ardmore (wearing orange safety vests, of course), marking storm drains with “No Dumping” medallions. At the Willistown Conservation Trust Headquarters and Chamounix Equestrian Center in Fairmount Park, students planted flowers and tended gardens.

Science teachers across all divisions participated in the Earth Day Teach-In. Regular lessons were suspended for a day while students focused on topics related to the environment. Warren Young’s Lower School students learned about frogs as indicator species for pollution levels. Deb Veraldi’s eighth graders focused on renewable versus non-renewable sources of energy. And Carol Gilligan’s seventh grade classes wrapped up a unit on wetlands by representing different interest groups in a land-use planning activity.