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Chaney students ‘upcycle’ items
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
A shoe constructed from cardboard, a lamp crafted from a juice jug and a vase fashioned from a light bulb — they’re all “upcycled” projects from Chaney sixth- and seventh-graders.
Upcycling is turning “something old into something new instead of throwing it away,” said seventh-grader Maria Rodriguez, 13.
She made a cardboard shoe, modeled after Nikes, and gave an old wall clock a new look by gluing old compact discs to its front.
Chaney students are marking Earth Day, which was Tuesday, with a week of activities. Engineering students will head outdoors later this week to clean up the school grounds.
Students in Sharon Ragan’s classes made upcycled projects at home. Some even made a second project for extra credit.
Seventh-grader Christopher Fitzgerald, 14, took an old juice jug, deposited coins in the bottom to weigh it down and added a cord, light fixture and switch he bought at the hardware store to the top to make a lamp. He decorated the base with seashells and family photographs.
“I’ll probably put it in the front room and use it as a lamp,” Christopher said.
Nazier Jones, 13, also a seventh-grader, took two empty toilet-paper rolls and some tape and turned them into salt and pepper shakers.
Upcycling “accomplishes not throwing away things and keeping the world clean so it won’t go in the landfill,” Nazier explained.
Seventh-grader Justin Young, 13, turned an old light bulb into a flower vase.
“I thought it would be hard at first,” he said.
He had to remove the top and take out all of the wires and filaments inside. The whole thing only took a few minutes and he has a vase he can put flowers in.
Sixth-graders Nadia Rockwell, 11, and Kataya Coney and MacKenzie Acierno, both 12, were making their own flowers in class Wednesday using pages from magazines.
Reusing items that would otherwise be thrown away is a good way to preserve the health of the planet, MacKenzie said. It also reduces pollution, added Kataya.
Sixth-graders Kobe Viera, 12, and Jacob Mitchell, 11, were cutting out cardboard leaves to glue to a Cool Whip container to create a wreath to hang on door.
Each of the boys made an individual project at home too. Kobe made a piggy bank using an empty baby- wipes container that he covered in wallpaper, and Jacob made a planter using a root-beer bottle.