WELCOME to The Loop, Issue 26 Mar/Apr 2004 A Bimonthly Newsletter for Friends of Close the Loop® This month's issue includes... The Importance of Teaching Manufacturing Recycled Products to our Youth Insuring the Quality of Life for Americans Girls Go Tech It's Her Future, Do the Math Make a Nesting Ball to Welcome Spring & the Birds WHAT'S YOUR OPINION? Marketplace: Exceptional Products Propose an Article The Importance of Teaching Manufacturing Recycled Products to our Youth: Young children should be given opportunities to study and manipulate many different kinds of materials, from clay and paper to metals and plastics. This allows them to begin learning about the properties that make up materials as well as about manufacturing. This may also include identifying material properties and figuring out their suitability for different purposes. It is not too early for children to begin to wonder what happens to something after it has been thrown away. By the time they reach the 3-5 grade level, students should already understand that some kinds of materials are better than others for making any particular thing, that several steps are usually involved in making things, and that some materials can be used over again. Working with products and investigating their base properties can help students discover the properties of various materials and begin to identify how people transform materials into useful objects. For teaching lessons & tools on this subject, please visit: http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/lessons.cfm?DocID=386 http://www.planetpals.com/ppsitemap.html Insuring the Quality of Life for Americans 14M American jobs are at risk of getting exported for cheap labor. In America, we've been trying to shut down sweat shops here for years now we're exporting our jobs to sweat shops overseas. Here is a list of companies Lou Dobbs of CNN has confirmed are "Exporting America." These are U.S. companies either sending American jobs overseas, or choosing to employ cheap overseas labor, instead of American workers, to see this list please visit: http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/popups/exporting.america/frameset.exclud e.html Girls Go Tech It's Her Future, Do the Math This campaign aims to encourage girls to develop an early interest in math, science, and technology and, ultimately, maintain that interest as they mature to ensure a more diverse, dynamic, and productive workforce. Created as a PSA for a national call to action for parents and caregivers to empower girls to help bridge the techno-gender divide. The objective is to persuade influencers of young girls to act to change the cultural cues that girls receive. By sixth grade, too many girls lose interest in math and science which they'll need for most future jobs, keep her interest alive, for ideas please visit: http://www.girlscouts.org/girlsgotech/girlsgotech_booklet.pdf Make a Nesting Ball to Welcome Spring & the Birds Have children look for nest-building materials (yarn, ribbon, string, dog hair brushings, and lint from a clothes dryer). Stuff the nesting materials into a mesh bag. Bags from onion, potatoes, garlic, or other vegetables work quite well. Tie the bag closed with string. Hang the ball from a tree branch or other structure that is within easy sight of the children and where the birds can pick at it and fly off to build their nests. Source: Learn and Play the Recycle Way, written by: Rhoda Redleaf and Audry Robertson; http://www.redleafpress.org Opinion Poll - Submit your answer to this month's Close the Loop® Poll: What is the best way to combat litter? To respond, click here. Thanks for last newsletter answers to what was the best environmentally friendly gift you received this holiday season? Here's some of the answers: "Home made cookies in reusable tin." "I am now the proud adoptive parent of a manatee named Elaine. This is the best present I have ever received!" "A local indigenous plant that attracts butterflies" Marketplace: Exceptional Products RUBBER MULCH It's money well spent, keeping your children safer rather than fixing broken bones! Give us a call at 866.629.8414 or email today, in stock & ready for delivery to your home, school or public playground facility. It's a good investment in our children's safety and helps solve an environmental problem. Read up on playground safety written by the Consumer Product Safety Commission "CPSC Handbook for Public Playground Safety" online: http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PUBS/325.pdf . POST & RAIL FENCING First there was wood (rots), then there was vinyl (hollow), now there's a solid, durable alternative post & rail fencing made from 100% recycled plastic; will never rot! Our fencing is made by a high-tech process designed to make the posts and rails look like they were cut from actual redwood trees. GARDEN GLASS A unique alternative form of landscaping mulch, lasts a lifetime be the 1st on your block to start something new and excitingadd a bit of sparkle For more information on these and more unique recycled products, please visit: www.closetheloop.com or call us at 866.629.8414. Inspirational Quotes: "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." -Ralph Waldo Emerson "How to nip litter in the bud?Just don't throw!" Close the Loop |
