Science Teacher and Students are Making a Difference!
Pictured below are Cancer Survivors Against Radon, Vice Presidents, Gloria Linnertz, Lung Cancer Survivor, Barb Sorgatz and Debbie Clinebell. Barb and Gloria discovered their homes had high levels of radon only after lung cancer entered their lives.
On May 8, 2009, at the Spring Radon Conference of the Midwest Chapter of The American Association of Radon Scientists and Technologists (AARST) Waterloo Junior High School science teacher, Debbie Clinebell and her eighth grade science students were recognized with a plaque and a $500 grant from Midwest AARST. The award was given for the continued effort to bring the awareness of the danger of radon gas to the community, government officials and educators.
For years Debbie and her students have received an EPA State Indoor Radon Grant (SIRG) to purchase radon test kits for the Waterloo community and to educate the local government officials and citizens of the danger of radon gas. However with the challenge of no money from EPA this year, Debbie and her students created the Radon Community Service Project. They began to design fundraisers to earn enough money to purchase the radon test kits and seek out ways to bring awareness to others that radon gas is present, it causes lung cancer, and it can be prevented.
The students’ efforts to raise money and their outreach methods may have a greater impact on the surrounding area than their original goal of placing the test kits in the homes. Through the sale of the Reduce Radon t-shirts, the Hat day and the autographed Cardinal baseball and photograph, the students raised $470. The students’ activities included reading the “Radon Story” to first graders, writing Oprah and requesting a show focusing on radon, creating pamphlets and flyers on radon displayed and distributed in local businesses, requesting the Chamber of Commerce to create a Radon Walk, displaying information at the local Relay for Life, writing letters to the editors of many newspapers in the two-state area, creating a You Tube video and a Face book page, requesting to speak on radio and TV stations, entering the Radon Poster Contest, contacting local veterinarians requesting information placed on their websites on the radon effect on animals, educating all of the Waterloo Community School District 5 employees through an email, making a presentation at Southern Illinois University--Edwardsville to future science teachers, creating power point presentations to be shown to other classes, creating a spreadsheet to show the results of over 800 radon tests that have been performed by the science classes over the last several years. These are just some of the buzz of activities going on concerning radon awareness and education in Waterloo Junior High in Waterloo, Illinois.
Radon is a radioactive gas that can enter buildings—homes, schools and workplaces—through openings around sump pumps, plumbing pipes or other tiny crevices in basements or other locations. Radon comes from the decay of uranium in the ground beneath buildings. Radon can be found throughout our state, nation and world. The only way to know if you are living, working and studying in an environment with high levels of radon is to perform a simple test. If the level is near 4.0 picocuries per liter of air or higher, Illinois Emergency Management Agency and the Surgeon General recommend that you have your home remedied by a licensed radon migitator.
Debbie Clinebell has been a junior high science teacher for 20 years, and she is most proud of her students’ accomplishments. Debbie and her students are making a difference!
Submitted by:
Gloria Linnertz
