Catawba environmental students show benefits of small change
Published 12:00 am Thursday, November 8, 2018
- Submitted photo Brooke Applebaum holding up penny wars jugs for tallying up points and rolling coins after the competition at Catawba College.
Catawba College News Service
When you hear pennies for charity, you may be thinking “What’s the point?”
At the start of October, four faculty from the department of environment & sustainability answered that question by raising over $80 in small change. As a complement to their lesson plans on hurricanes and their impacts, instructors Sue Calcagni, Lisa Wear, Kelly Flanigan and Tyler Davis pitted their introductory environmental science classes against one another in a game of Penny Wars.
For two weeks, students in the class Land: Management & Ecology and in Water Ecology and Environmental Communication filled their class buckets with pennies to increase their own points while dropping point-reducing nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars into their rivals’ buckets.
It was a close race, but Davis’ Land: Management & Ecology class claimed victory just before fall break.
“Every penny counts,” exclaimed freshman Connor Lee as he added a penny to his class’s bucket.
The money will buy a gift card to help North Carolina’s Trenton Elementary School restock school supplies after losing everything from the devastating effects of Hurricane Florence. The charity is operational in cooperation with the Center for the Environment and Salisbury’s own Hurley Elementary School.