Jamesburg students join chat with Dr. Jane Goodall about conservation

BY Christopher Lang, Correspondent, @topherlang2, MonroeNow, April 8, 2019

JAMESBURG – Third-graders had a special opportunity last week when they Skyped with well-known primatologist and anthropologist Dr. Jane Goodall.

The John F. Kennedy Elementary School third-grade students participated in the online broadcast on April 2 as part of efforts to teach the young learners about the environment. 

Dr. Jane Goodall talks to students at John F. Kennedy Elementary School in Jamesburg and other parts of the country and the world on April 2 via Skype. Photo Courtesy of Lisa Giordano

“The third-grade teachers wanted to give the students a chance to hear about a person who has made a big impact on the environment and inspired change in the world,” JFK third-grade teacher Lisa Giordano said. “Then have the students take action themselves.”

On April 9, fifth-graders will get the same opportunity.

Goodall, who celebrated her 85th birthday on April 3, is well-known for her ground-breaking study of chimpanzees. She founded the Jane Goodall Institute and the Roots and Shoots program and has extensively worked on animal welfare and conservation issues.

Following the video chat, some students joined the “One Click Campaign,” which is part of the Roots and Shoots program. Students committed to teach their families about waste reduction to improve the environment and others joined the seed planting campaign, Giordano said.  

The April 2 live broadcast included students from around the world.

“The [Jamesburg] students were amazed to see that students from India, Africa and Europe, as well as various other states in our country, were asking questions at the same time as we were submitting ours,” Giordano said.

Some of the questions students asked dealt with how to help chimpanzees, did people challenge your dream of working with chimpanzees because you are a woman and the hardest part about living with chimpanzees.

“We felt that participating in an event like this can broaden students’ viewpoints, opening them up to new perspectives and ideas that people have around the world,” Giordano said. “It also open students’ minds to different projects they could get involved in, that they hadn’t know about before, such as recycling cell phones to prevent mining of minerals in the forests where chimpanzees live, or planting flowers to help migratory monarch butterflies.”