June 8th was World Oceans Day and we’re spotlighting the beach clean-up project students from iQ Academy-Los Angeles (iQLA) recently participated in at Santa Monica Beach.
While K12-powered students primarily interact with one another through their virtual classrooms, they also routinely get together for community service projects.
“As a community, we feel responsible for helping our local oceans remain clean,” said Gary Gyultemiryan, a social science teacher at iQLA who organized the event. “The ocean garbage does not dissolve, hence the increase in plastic products in our oceans.”
While the pre-event lesson about how long trash lasts had to be canceled due to the windy weather, the students in attendance “received a sense of gratification by actually doing something about the problem, rather than simply discussing in class,” Gary said.
Students and teachers worked together to pick up as much trash as they could, and the event concluded with a picnic for the students to continue socializing with their friends and teachers.
According to Gary, “Students partnering with their teachers on beach clean-up generated camaraderie for both student and teacher alike.”
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