In October, the Environmental Club met and walked to the civic center to drop off recyclable goods. Students had collected items in their classrooms and from home to take and deposit into the recycling bins.

On November 20th, members of the Environmental Club were visited by Colleen Iversen, a scientist from Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Mrs. Iversen spoke to the students about global warming and the greenhouse effect. Students found out that we need a certain amount of carbon dioxide that we get from the greenhouse effect. However, in the last few years, there have been drastic increases in the gases trapped in our atmosphere. This has resulted in the ever-increasing temperatures.

Students performed an experiment comparing an open atmosphere (the control atmosphere) to a partially ventilated atmosphere and a non-ventilated atmosphere. The atmospheres were two liter soda bottles. Students taped thermometers inside each "atmosphere" and then a high watt work light was shone on them. Students observed the atmospheres for ten minutes. Every minute, students recorded the temperature of each atmosphere. After ten minutes, the data was put into a computer and the results were graphed. Students saw that the atmosphere with no ventilation held in the most heat energy causing the temperature to rise the highest. The partially ventilated atmosphere (a soda bottle with openings cut out of the sides) held the next largest amount of heat energy. The control atmosphere was a thermometer that was not in a soda bottle. The temperature of it changed little in the ten minute time frame.

Mrs. Iversen compared these environments to a car left in a parking lot during the summer. If the car has all its windows rolled up, it will be hotter than a car with the windows rolled down. This is what the greenhouse effect is doing to Earth. Heat energy is being trapped in our atmosphere resulting in higher temperatures. Reasons for this include air pollution from automobiles and factories. They put off an excess amount of carbon dioxide. Plants need carbon dioxide to survive. However, the more trees and forests we cut down, the fewer plants there are to take in the carbon dioxide. Therefore, we have an over abundance of carbon dioxide and global warming occurs!!!

The Environmental Club will meet again in February. A speaker will be visiting the students from the Sevier County Soil Conservation District. At this meeting, the students will get to see and "Enviroscape Display" which is a demonstration on water pollution and soil erosion.