Sustainable Living Field Trip to Hofstra

During the first two weeks of March, Hofstra University had a sustainable living exhibit. The sixth graders from Roosevelt Children's Academy took a trip to the exhibit one Thursday morning. We learned so much!  We learned about reusable containers and how they help our environment. We learned about composting and the purpose of the worms in compost. We got to hold worms in our hands, look at the picture! We each planted our own vegetable seed to take home with us. They also gave us two plants to care for at our school. We read books about going green, we learned how much energy we could save by bicycling to and from school and we learned so much more. It was a great morning and we are so happy we went. We thank Hofstra for allowing us this opportunity and helping us with this learning experience!

 

   

Glenwood Landing Elementary ~ Green Footprint Project

 

Mrs. Cortez-Riggio’s class kicked off an event for their environmental project focusing on carbon emissions and its impact in relation to greenhouse gases and global warming.  

On January 22nd Glenwood Landing Elementary school will host its first annual "Green Day" event.  Students and teachers will participate in a variety of environment related activities.  It is the goal of this class to make their peers and the community aware of the environmental issues that are affecting their neighborhood and how they can make a difference.

Together, the class created a slogan which said, “S.T.O.P (Stop Turn Off Pollution)” and made a symbol comprised of a “Green Footprint” to help prevent carbon footprints from spreading. The students hand painted the logo onto charms for necklaces, key chains, and magnets and sold them at the Glenwood Landing Book Fair. All of the profits from the sale will be used to buy a Moon Sycamore tree which they hope to plant on school grounds to help reduce carbon emissions produced from nearby cars.

Currently, students are working on another environment project by collecting and analyzing data that studies the effects of carbon emissions on our air quality. Through this project, students hope to gain a greater sense of awareness towards human environment interactions on both a local and global level.

 

Bright Green Dream School Sustainability Challenge

Dream Green! Educators in k-12 schools in the United States and its territories are invited to enter the 2009 Bright Green Dream sustainability challenge. One winner will receive a $15,000 classroom upgrade and four others will be given classroom lighting upgrades. Entries must be received between April 27 and September 25 (12 AM). Educators are asked to envision their own sustainable classroom and may upload their ideas in formats such as doc, jpeg, pdf, ppt, avi, wmv, mpg, mov, ram and swf. A judging rubric and contest rules are available.

Classroom Earth

High school teachers will find loads of resources at ClassroomEarth, a site that features teaching about the environment. Even though the stress is on environmental science, the site includes sections that promote learning in social studies, the arts, mathematics, and language arts. All the information at Classroom Earth is available in both Spanish and English. Resources can be searched by subject area or topic (such as climate, pollution, water, government, urban environments, energy); language arts material is divided into Grades 9-10 and 11-12. There's a section to help with teaching about the environment and a list of some really nice professional development opportunities for teachers.

Check Out These Environmental Education Grants

ClassroomEarth has a list of grants for those interested in environmental education. Grants and awards include the Irwin Andrew Porter Foundation grants (available in seven states, $500-$3000), due 06/01/09; SCA Green Your School Contest for high school projects (awards of $2,500 to $5000, due 10/09/09; GreenWorks Grant for student-led service projects (awards up to $5000), due 10/31/09; Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Training, K-12 math or science teacher, ($10,000), due 05/01/09; NEA Student Achievement Grants for improving achievement ($5000), due 06/01/09; and a number of others. Some of the deadlines have passed, but if you are interested in these grants, be sure to be on the lookout for the 2010 announcements.