Primary Five Kermode at St. George’s Preparatory school recently undertook a study about the importance of preserving open spaces.The school enjoys working toward the education display for the Annual Exhibition, which opens today in the Botanical Gardens. P5 elected to study this subject from a list of possible topics, which all fit into the primary social studies curriculum. All of the children were required to create a project about a specific open space, and many of these will be on display at the Annual Exhibition.The project involved a core of 23 students, assisted by other students in various phases. They began the project in January and directed its development. Luckily, ‘open spaces’ has been a very hot topic, well covered by the media.The students took a few field trips to parks, including Spittal Pond (thanks to the Bermuda National Trust) and St. George’s golf course. They were visited by a representative from Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce and had a number of conversations with the Planning Department.Students conducted a survey about how family members use open spaces. Through these projects and other observations, the children have put together a display about the current state of open spaces, uses, threats, problems and solutions.P5 identified four main “open space” problems: Trash, vagrants, vandalism and construction. The students found the most overwhelming problem was trash probably because they do not see the political issues trash is much more tangible. Literally every park we visited (as a class or independently for recreation or their project) had a real trash problem.