Lake Placid High School junior Emma Wylie helps a group of students use a microscope at Lake Placid Elementary School’s Earth Day celebration on April 22. Wylie organized the event as her capstone project. (Provided photo)

LAKE PLACID — On April 22, 21 high school students and a sixth-grader returned to Lake Placid Elementary School for a day packed with environmental science-themed activities and lessons. The Earth Day celebration was spearheaded by Lake Placid High School junior Emma Wylie.

The day was a combination of a capstone project, which all LPHS students must complete before they graduate, and an AP environmental science project for Wylie.

“We had to do something environmentally focused that supports the community, your world or anything,” Wylie said. “It could be statewide, it could be just in your community, it could be global, but it just has to have some kind of environmental impact and then a goal.”

Wylie said that her childhood love of hands-on learning helped inspire her decision to bring environmental science to LPES for Earth Day.

“I, as a kid, loved hands on learning and loved learning about science through lab work and through getting to look at microscopes or touch animals or plant seedlings. It was my favorite thing, and so I really wanted to offer that to the kids here,” Wylie said.

Lake Placid Middle/High School science teacher Tammy Morgan poses with an array of microscopes at Lake Placid Elementary School’s Earth Day celebration on April 22. (Provided photo)

She met with LPES Principal Sonja Franklin and they decided on a multi-station model for the celebration, where students could cycle through various tasks and lessons throughout the day. The Educational Opportunity Fund for the Lake Placid Central School District provided funding for the event.

Almost all of the stations were run by high school students, with the exception of a “leave no trace” station run by the Adirondack Mountain Club.

At the planting station, students learned how to plant seedlings in recycled egg cartons. At the composting station, some of the high school’s “composting experts” taught students proper composting habits and the benefits of compost, Wylie said.

A dark skies station featured a homemade light pollution simulation.

“One of the (high school) students is passionate about the dark skies project, and so she presented to the kids and had a little dark box that they could look into with little holes poked in the back, sort of like stars,” Wylie said. “She would shine a light through the side so you could see the stars disappear a little bit as the light pollution came in to help the kids visualize what light pollution looks like in the Adirondacks.”

From left, Lexi Coffin, Jesse Marshall and Kelsey McKillip pose at the plant station at Lake Placid Elementary School’s Earth Day celebration on April 22. McKillip was the team leader and “resident plant expert.” (Provided photo)

At the bird station, kids made binoculars out of recycled cardboard tubes and identified images of birds that were pinned up around the gym.

The recycling station featured a painting created by Wylie: a background of the High Peaks and “Lake Placid” spelled out in recycled bottle caps. Students got to sign their names on the painting, and at the end of the day, Wylie gifted it to LPES, “as a reminder of Earth Day and recycling and the values of it on our community and the Adirondacks.”

Outside, students could participate in a game of “flower, flower, bee” — a pollination-themed take on duck, duck, goose — or play a pollination game with masking tape and cotton balls.

Wylie was in charge of the microscope station, where she played guessing games with the LPES students.

“I was just asking, you know, ‘What do you think you see?’ Because it looks so different when you’re up close,” she said.

A group of Lake Placid High School student volunteers sign a painting created by junior Emma Wylie to commemorate Lake Placid Elementary School’s Earth Day celebration. (Provided photo)

At lunch, third- through fifth-grade students heard a presentation from a sixth grade student, Vivian Smith, on a composting project she spearheaded. Smith also received a grant from the Educational Opportunity Fund for her project.

“(Smith) came during lunch to talk … about her idea about composting and stuff like that, but also from the lens that if you have a project idea, you can make it a reality,” Wylie said. “I really wanted to spread that idea that there is money available if you want to make a difference in your community.”

After the presentation, the students got to make their own action plans. Wylie said it was the most inspiring part of the day.

“You could see the passion the kids have for these issues, especially recycling at their school or compost or waste management or even the basketball courts, offering more opportunities for outdoor recreation and appreciation of the environment,” Wylie said. “I thought it was really cool that the kids wanted to do that.”

At the end of the day, students got to take home a variety of environmental prizes. The grand prizes sparked the most competition and excitement, according to Wylie; two classrooms got to “adopt” wild animals through the World Wildlife Fund. In the end, Mrs. Miller’s second grade class adopted a koala and Jon Fremante’s fifth-grade class adopted a kangaroo and her joey.

From left, Colin Francis, Aidan Fay and Levi Barney pose at the composting station at Lake Placid Elementary School’s Earth Day celebration on April 22. (Provided photo)

Wylie said that she hoped the Earth Day celebration inspired LPES students to be more environmentally conscious and become real-world problem-solvers.

“They are the next generation and they are the ones who are able to make change,” Wylie said. “In environmental science, we’ve learned about so many environmental problems and environmental justice issues, and it was really important to me to teach the next generation about these problems and really empower them to be able to make change when they get older and to know that they have the ability to make a difference.”