MARK WAITE / PVT From left, Jennifer Simon, Keniae Henderson and Heather Anderson, dump paper for recycling from bins they purchased using proceeds from hot chocolate sales at Rosemary Clarke Middle School. Advertisement

For many Rosemary Clarke Middle School students, remembering the environment isn't just a once-a-year event heating up hot dogs on a solar cooker at the park.

Ecological issues are increasingly addressed in school science curriculums. Some students are going further, getting involved in hands-on projects.

Students in Robert Nielsen's geography class raised money selling hot chocolate and used $350 of it to buy recycling tubs. Sixty-six tubs are located in various classrooms around school, Neilsen said. They're collected every Monday and Thursday.

Pahrump Valley Disposal donated a large recycling dumpster behind school. Recyclable material -- mostly paper but also aluminum cans, cardboard, plastic bottles, glass bottles formerly discarded as trash -- is all thrown in together. The material is separated at a recycling center in Las Vegas. Nielsen said three large dumpster loads have already been removed since the program started in November.

"Custodians said they noticed quite a drastic reduction in the trash," Nielsen said. "We get more and more (material) each week as more people get involved in it. This is something we hope to continue for a long time."

But Nielsen added the learning aspect of it is probably more important than reducing the trash going into the landfill.

"This is more of a long-term thing because if we can get the kids to start thinking about recycling, and once Pahrump opens its own recycling center the kids will become accustomed to it," Nielsen said.

Some of the middle school students picking up the bins on a weekday afternoon commented they were bringing recyclable material from home to contribute.

"I started recycling at home," said seventh grader Auston Iwinski. Asked what his family thinks about it, he said, "They think it's good for the environment."

Iwinski said his sister and brothers picked up trash in the desert during the annual Pahrump Clean Up this past Saturday.

Students will plant a tree this week, Nielsen said. Seventh graders took large garbage bags and cleaned up the route to Simkins Park Tuesday, which is actually Earth Day, he said.

Across the courtyard, science teacher Carol Hunn said she had consultants involved in cleaning up the Nevada Test Site address her class recently.

James Stover, public involvement manager for the Stoller Navarro Joint Venture for the U.S. Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration, gave a Power Point presentation to school kids on the history of nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site from 1950 to 1992.

The clean-up efforts at the Nevada Test Site were described, including the cleanup of contaminated soil, the monitoring of well water and tearing down obsolete buildings.

"They're required by federal law to provide information to the public on what is being done," Hunn said.

Displays were set up in the school hallways, including a map showing groundwater monitoring stations around the test site.

Students received a workbook on "Operation Clean Desert" with cartoon characters like "Adam the Atom" and "Doctor Proton." It includes descriptions on how radiation is harmful, and how it's being cleaned up.

On May 13-14 a trained facilitator will be brought in by Utilities Inc. of Central Nevada to set up stations in sixth grade science class, with displays on water conservation, the hydrological cycle, avoiding groundwater contamination and other topics as part of a program called Water Education for Teachers.

James Pacheco, area manager for Utilities Inc., said utilities are required to have water conservation outreach. The company decided to do that outreach through the schools.