Students Make Park a Priority

Malibu Creek State Park is a good place to hike and take in the views, but that’s not why 190 Sierra Canyon Middle School students are planning to head over there today.

Eager to participate in an outdoor community service project, the Chatsworth sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders will join a state park ranger, California Native Plants Society volunteers and members of the Santa Monica Mountains Trail Council in a daylong cleanup of the popular park. The students will also help eradicate invasive plants not native to the area.

The workday is the culmination of a schoolwide multimedia project dubbed YouThink, in which the students created art projects depicting social messages. Healing the environment emerged as the students’ most pressing concern, leading to today’s cleanup project in Malibu.

“All of the [projects] are in the office now, and many of the kids and I became teary-eyed when we saw them. They’re quite moving,” said Shelley Deutsch, Sierra Canyon’s community service director. “It was a great learning experience for them.”

KUDOS

Sparking Interest: When it comes to teaching chemistry, a hands-on approach is the preferred method of Chatsworth High School’s Barbara Pressey Sitzman, recent recipient of the American Chemical Society’s Western Regional High School Chemistry Teaching Award.

The Tarzana resident has been known to turn her classroom into a “chem kitchen” that produces household chemical products, and her students have also videotaped skits on the life of a chemist.

“Chemistry is very abstract, so the challenge is to tie it to the everyday experiences of the students,” Sitzman said. “I’m hoping they’ll learn how to solve all kinds of life problems, using the same processes they learn in chemistry: examining data and making decisions accordingly.”

PROGRAM NOTES

Animated: Getting the anti-smoking message out can be fun. Just ask the 167 Francisco Sepulveda Middle School students who recently participated in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s popular AnimAction-Awareness Through Animation workshops.

Working with professional animators, the North Hills students--teamed up in groups of 10--produced a series of 30-second animated public service announcements, which will premiere Dec. 10 at 1 p.m. in the school auditorium.

“The kids had a most incredible two days,” said health teacher Sue Crosby. “They were thrown together with new friends and learned to work as a team. They received a very strong anti-smoking message. It is the best program I’ve seen, hands down.”

Feeding the Homeless:

Combining their artistic and altruistic interests, students from Verdugo Hills High School’s multimedia classes are preparing and serving Thanksgiving dinner to about 100 homeless people at Sunland Park this afternoon. The video production students are creating a documentary of the community-service effort, to which families and local businesses donated money and food.

The completed video will air Dec. 2 on a local cable station.

Starry Night:

Woodlake Avenue Elementary School students checked out a host of heavenly bodies at their recent Astronomy Night. The Woodland Hills stargazers learned how to use a star map and caught a glimpse of Jupiter. They also sampled food that astronauts eat in space.

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Class Notes appears every Wednesday. Send news about schools to the Valley Edition, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311. Or fax it to (818) 772-3338. Or e-mail them to diane.wedner@latimes.com.