Environmental Sustainability in Our Schools

Sustainability has become a common buzzword in news, conversation, and marketing. What better way to imbed the concepts of sustainability in society than through education!  Educating for sustainability and educating for sustainable development are up and coming trends in education.

FEATURED ARTICLES

Forestdale School Green Team

Teachers deserve much respect.  Prior to parenthood, I have dipped into the education field by directing a high school athletic program, lecturing about health issues, and running outdoor wilderness programs.  But, I have not taught in a classroom on a daily basis.  This year I ran a Green Team at the Forestdale School, a Malden elementary school.  The program took place after school one day per week for 1.5 hours. 

  Teachers Head Outdoors for Nature Camp

“You see any legs?” “It looks like an alien.” “I think it’s a whirligig beetle.” These were some of the questions and answers flying back and forth between teachers during a field investigation activity this summer at Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm in Lincoln. Nineteen educators from across the state came to Drumlin Farm during the week of July 14 for Nature Camp: Bringing Environmental Science to Life.

Let’s all go to the landfill!

The idea of sustainable living is laudable, but most children probably can’t grasp the concept without an appropriate context.  Go green, buy local, recycle, and other healthy choices for the environment all supports the idea of sustainability, but seeing non-sustainable items can be much more affective for children.

The Junior Solar Sprint Program

A desire to inspire enthusiasm for science, engineering, and mathematics in students drives the Junior Solar Sprint Program… Students are hearing about the Greenhouse Effect, Global Climate Change and Global Warming.  Their families are feeling the pinch of high fuel prices, not only at the gasoline pump, but across the board since petroleum has been the primary energy source in our lifetimes and is often taken for granted. A growing number of people today are concerned about the conflicts inherent in increasing demands and decreasing supplies of a non-renewable resource. These are the problems at hand. What is a middle-school student to do with this information? They hear about crisis and doom and one has to wonder, are we shutting our kids down before they ever feel the glimmer of inspiration and empowerment to do something about their future?

Visit the Articles page to find more! 

LESSON PLANS

Continuum of Sustainability

What does “sustainability” mean? Initiate greater awareness about the concept of sustainability and explore concrete and simple ways students can create positive change in their lives and the lives of their family and community.

Sustain or Drain

This hands-on exercise puts participants in the middle of an easy-to-understand sustainability dilemma.
Purpose: To Introduce participants to the concept of sustainable development.
Group size: 4 to 36 participants.
Time Needed:  30 minutes.

What is a Transition Town?

Excerpt from http://www.transitiontowns.org/
It all starts off when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: how can our community respond to the challenges, and opportunities, of Peak Oil and Climate Change?
They begin by forming an initiating group and then adopt the “Transition Model” with the intention of engaging a significant proportion of the people in their community to kick off a Transition Initiative.

Sustainability Unit Outline – 7th Grade

The following outlines a sustainability unit taught to 7th grade students in a life science class. Sustainability focusing on the 3 E’s – environment, economy, and equity were integrated throughout the content and methodologies of the unit. Many ideas of constructivism were also used as students created a lot of their own learning through projects and group work.

Schoolyard Environmental Exploration

Returning to school after the summer vacation means getting the children and yourself into an academic routine. Reviewing materials that were so well learned from the grade before, takes some disciplining before new lessons are learned.  Sometimes we tend to forget the late August and early September are still summer months. There are all kinds of activities that you can plan by using the outside environment.

RESOURCES and BOOKS

New Book on Ecology, Teacher Education, and School Gardens

The Learning Garden: Ecology, Teaching, and Transformation, by Veronica Gaylie (April 2009), tells the story of building a campus Learning Garden over a series of cohorts of student teachers, practicing teachers, and environmental education students. The book describes both the theoretical and the practical basis for school and campus gardens, and includes a chapter of activities and resources.

FOUND: A GREAT SCIENCE RESOURCE

On July 12, 2009 the new free educational science website produced by the Catch the Science Bug Foundation and sponsored by Best Buy Children’s Foundation went live at www.sciencebug.org.  The purpose of this website is to provide a variety of science activities that increase science literacy, raise environmental awareness, and introduce different careers in the sciences.   

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT and UPCOMING EVENTS

New England Environmental Education Alliance Conference
September 25-27, 2009
Connecticut

See the Calendar for more upcoming events!

ADVOCACY

Check our Advocacy pages for updates and new information.