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Hornet Press One Swarm -One Nest -One Hive Issue 7 May 21 Green Gardens at Weeki Wachee High School By: Megan Jenkins This school year, Weeki Wachee High School's environmental club was able to restart the campus garden. This green area currently has plants such as tomato, lettuce, beans, and even a guava tree. A compost program has also been introduced in the past few weeks to create nutrient rich soil that can be used for future gardening. The club president Liel Shachr was able to give some insight into the impact restarting the garden has made on both the club, and its members. Q: “What were your beginning goals with the garden?” A: “I really wanted everyone in the club to get involved in the garden and learn how to grow different foods which can make an impact on their lives now and in the future.” Q: “How do you feel the garden is going now?” A: “I think the garden is doing great! Everyone, both teachers and students, love growing different crops and learning about the science behind agriculture.” Q: What changes do you want to make next year in order to improve the garden? A: “I want to expand the garden so we can grow a larger variety of fruits and vegetables as well as donate the crops once we’ve harvested them to the food bank. Donating the food to people in need is a really big goal of mine for next year, because I want the school garden to help as many people as possible, both inside and outside of the school.” Teacher Feature Mr. DeJesus By: Alexa kalhorn Q: Why did you become a teacher? Mr. DeJesus is a math teacher at Weeki A: “I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to close Wachee. He teaches all grade levels, and his the learning gap.” classes this year include Algebra II Honors, DE College Algebra, DE College Precalculus and Trigonometry, AP Statistics, and AP Q: What do you like about teaching? Calculus. He also sponsored the junior and senior math teams that took part in the M3 A: “It’s really just closing that learning gap for me.” Challenge back in February. Mr. DeJesus has made an immense impact on many students at Weeki Wachee High School and continues to Q: What do you want for your students? do so through his continuous dedication to helping students. A: “I want them to be better than they were when they first came to me.” Q: What is your teaching philosophy? A: “Make sure that my students walk out with some improvement… as many improvements as possible. At the end of the day, we want to make sure they’re even better than us.” Mr. DeJesus’ classroom Environment Florida’s Hurricane Season By: Jamie Shafer When it comes to Hurricane Season, Floridians seem to always be on the edge of their seats. Hurricanes are no joke, and they can be very devastating. Not only must one prepare accordingly in the face of a hurricane, but residents also need to closely follow the news to keep track of the hurricane’s patterns. There are many facets to hurricanes, and we have only just recently begun discovering the science behind them. Hurricanes are formed during the warm summer months when the oceans start to heat up, and sometimes hurricanes can form in the early fall. Hurricane Season is technically from June 1st to November 30th, but that doesn’t mean a hurricane can or will form during that time. Hurricanes are actually very useful for the planet, as they move warm water and temperatures to the colder climates, but since they push water around as they travel, they can flood the coasts on land and destroy property and nature. Forecasters do their best to predict the patterns of hurricanes for the public, and our access to technology helps them be as accurate as possible. There are computer models, such as SLOSH (Sea, Lake and Overland Surges from Hurricanes) that help forecasters predict the amount of storm surge and strength of a hurricane. Most people watch their local news stations such as Bay News 9, to get their facts and information regarding upcoming hurricanes, so it’s imperative that they get as much correct as they can. Because of the importance of accuracy, these systems and models are self-correcting, which means they get better the more they are used. Source Used: https://eo.ucar.edu Environment Flamboyancy Within the Fast Fashion Industry By: Liel Shachr Fast fashion was the term coined to describe “cheap, trendy clothing that samples ideas from the catwalk or celebrity culture”, according to good on you.eco. However, fast fashion such as H&M and Forever 21, take an enormous amount of earth’s natural resources to make. The ever-growing trend of buying fast fashion over the past years is adding to this detrimental problem. The fashion industry is now the second largest polluter in the world and more people are starting to recognize this. Fast Fashion and Natural Resources The fashion industry consumes an incredible amount of water, 1.5 trillion liters of water each year to be exact. Sustainyourstyle.org reports that it takes 200 tons of fresh water to make one ton of dyed fabric. Most fast fashion is made in less developed countries which means there are less regulations on how to discard excess waste that was created through the process of making these clothing items. Untreated toxic wastewaters from these factories end up being dumped directly into rivers and streams because it is cheaper and easier for the companies. The wastewater contains different contaminants like lead, mercury, and arsenic. This specific problem has a trickling effect because as it spreads, it kills the aquatic wildlife and has major health effects on people. This can add to the larger problem of people in third world countries not having less access to clean drinking water. Deforestation can also be attributed to the fast fashion industry. Thousands of acres of rainforest are cut down each year and are replaced with tree plantations because fabrics like rayon are made from wood. Deforestation affects different communities such as indigenous people and animals who depend on rainforest’s natural resources to survive. The decreasing biodiversity of our world is a result of this rapid deforestation by fast fashion companies. Fast Fashion and Waste Microfibers are synthetic fibers that are less than ten micrometers or a fifth the diameter of a strand of hair. You may also know them as polyester or nylon, a common material used to make fast fashion clothing items. Every time you wash your shirt made of polyester or nylon, about 1,900 microfibers enter the water and are released into the oceans because all water from washing machines is emptied into a natural waterway. The microfibers that float in the ocean often confuse fish and shellfish because they can look like phytoplankton, and they end up eating it. The bioaccumulation of microfibers in fish eventually makes their way back to you, but this time it's through your stomach. That saying you have been hearing lately is ``every time you eat fish, you eat plastic”, well that's not wrong. Environment Flamboyancy Within the Fast Fashion Industry By: Liel Shachr The accumulation of clothing in landfills is becoming a hazard. Since most clothing is made of plastics, they are not biodegradable. Combine that with the consumer culture of the west where most people throw their clothing away regularly and replace it with more fast fashion, you get a major problem: landfills are overflowing with your old clothes. Today, only about 15% of clothing is recycled or donated and the rest goes to the landfill to be incinerated (more fossil fuels!). However, due to the massive amount of clothes that are overfilling our landfills along with all of our other non-biodegradable wastes, much of the clothes sit in those landfills. This emits methane into the air along with some blowing into the ocean or animal’s habitats over time. Fast Fashion and Solutions As consumers, we all can make a significant difference by carefully choosing our habits. One thing you can do is buy less. By buying clothes less often, we reduce the need for more fast fashion to be produced. Another way we can make a difference is to buy more sustainable clothing that is made from recycled material or materials that are not synthetic like cotton. Lastly, go thrifting! Clothing at thrift stores have already been made and bought from the retailer so buying secondhand means the money doesn't go directly to the store and does not promote them to make more fast fashion. Used clothing already exists so continuing the cycle and reusing clothes is a great way to give less money to big corporations who practice bad fast fashion habits. Current Events National Honors Society Food and Products Drive By: Josiah Betz and Megan Jenkins On May 1st, 2021, the National Honors Society (NHS) chapter at Weeki Wachee High School was able to have a campus cleanup, and a food and products drive that lasted through the month of April. This cleanup allowed for various areas throughout Weeki Wachee High School's campus to be cleaned, and further maintained such as the student parking lot. Students were also encouraged to bring in nonperishable food and hygiene products that could go towards Jericho Road Ministries and help those who need these products locally. When asked about the impact of this cleanup and food drive, Raphael Garcia the president of NHS stated that, “opportunities like the food drive and campus cleanup are perfect examples of what we are capable of.