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Students Turn Recycled Bags Into Works of Art

Danielle Tarmey

A Triad middle school teacher is using an art project to educate her students about plastic pollution in waterways and in the soil.

Danielle Tarmey teaches six grade at The Arts Based School in Winston-Salem.  Her colleague, Yvonne Leab is also working with Tarmey to teach students about plastic pollution.

All 28 of their students designed reusable canvas bags to celebrate the meaning of Earth Day.

“Before they decorate their bags, to get inspiration and to understand why they are doing this they do research on the harmful effects of plastic,” says Tarmey.

“They learn things like how species of animals are dying because they either get entangled in plastic or swallow the plastic because they think its food and that there is this swirling mass of plastic in the Pacific Ocean and how that is detrimental that is to the quality of the water,” Tarmey added.

Environmentalist Valerie Lecoeur of Winston-Salem donated the canvas bags to The Arts Based School for the project. 

Tarmey says her students are learning a lot from the experience.

“The research that the children do not only inspires their artwork for the bag but it really is for them to then be able to put together a cohesive and persuasive letter to somebody who will buy that bag.  I enjoy it because it gives them an authentic reason to write,” says Tarmey.

Tarmey says also included in the bags will be a self-addressed stamped post card for the consumer to respond personally to the student who wrote the letter and designed the bag that they bought.

The decorated bags will cost $10.00. The students will sell them to the public during the Piedmont Earth Day Fair on April 27 at the Dixie Classic Fairgrounds.

Keri Brown is a multi-award winning reporter and host at 88.5 WFDD. She has been honored with two regional Edward R. Murrow awards for her stories about coal ash, and was named the 2015 radio reporter of the year by the Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas (RTDNAC).Although she covers a variety of topics, her beats are environmental and education reporting.Keri comes to the Triad from West Virginia Public Broadcasting, where she served as the Chief Bureau Reporter for the Northern Panhandle. She produced stories for the state's Public Television and Radio programs and was honored by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcasters Association for her feature and enterprise reporting.She also served as an adjunct instructor at Wheeling Jesuit University and Bethany College in West Virginia. She worked with the Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, WV, and other NASA centers across the country to develop several stories about the use of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts in the classroom.Keri's journalism career began at WTRF-TV 7 in Wheeling. She worked in several roles at the station, including the head assignment editor. She also was a field producer and assignment manager at WPGH-TV Fox 53 in Pittsburgh.Keri is a graduate of Ohio University. When she's not in the studio or working on a story, she enjoys watching college football with her family, cooking, and traveling.Keri is always looking for another great story idea, so please share them with her. You can follow her on Twitter @kerib_news.

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