Teach Green
Of the “Four Pillars” discussed in “The Little Green Schoolhouse” report, this may be the most important. Research shows that schools that adopt an environmental focus demonstrate better academic performance across the curriculum. Environmental education helps build creative thinking and relationship skills, and fosters leadership qualities. Engage your students in learning about:
- The resources their schools consume -- and involve them in making consumption more sustainable
- Toxics issues in and around schools -- and involve them in minimizing their use
- Gardens and food systems -- and involve them in growing their own food.
Tips for Teachers: Start the School Year Off Green!
Transition back into the school year with green activities! It’s a great way to enjoy the final days of summer weather, establish green expectations and procedures from the very start, and have some fun! It’s also an important step in reducing the environmental footprint of your classroom. Check out our Tips for Greenifying your classroom...
Green Media
Engaging media resources abound to help green-leaning teachers and students make a difference for humanity and the planet. We update our Green Media pages regularly -- resources include Films & Videos, Online Media, Quizzes & Games, Books, and Audio tools. Dive in!
Earth Day Ideas and Activities
Check out our 2-page downloadable list of Earth Day activities and links for fun, easy, quick projects - recycling race, organic food taste test, recycled plastic bottle rockets, solar demonstrations, hand-made paper, and more. Links for "5 Minute Film Festival." Make every day Earth Day!
Environmental Footprint Calculators:
Tools for auditing your school and monitoring progress
Green school initiatives are most successful when everyone is engaged, including students, teachers, and staff. How do you inspire and engage students and the school community to get involved and stay involved? Try these ecological footprint tools combined with our resources on school audits.
Hands-On Environmental Audits:
Find out how your school can save money and resources
We'll show you how to help kids lead place-based, hands-on environmental audits and more!
Teaching Resources for Endangered Species Day, May 18, 2012
Endangered Species Day is a great opportunity for students to learn about the importance of protecting endangered species, and simple actions that to take to help protect our nation’s disappearing wildlife. Use these resources for teachers to bring the day alive!
"Green" Black Heroes
Communities of color and low-income communities often bear the brunt of environmental degradation and pollution. We have compiled a collection of African-American artists, activists, and celebrities who are working for environmental justice. During Black History Month in February, this list may come in handy, but these environmental heroes inspire us every day. We hope they inspire you and your students too!
Tell Your Senators To Support Environmental Education
It's a first! The National Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization bill now working its way through Congress contains first-ever provisions to support and fund environmental education (EE). The legislation is likely to go the Senate floor in the coming weeks. Contact your senators to support EE!
New EPA Site for Students Offers Lesson Plans for Teachers, Too
The EPA has launched a new student’s website called, ""It's Your Environment." K-12 students will find games, homework reference resources, awards, events and contests. Parents and teachers can also find resources and lesson plans.
NAAEE Seeks VOLUNTEERS for 2012 Conference in Oakland
The California Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education (AEOE) is partnering with the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) to produce its 41st Annual Conference next year October,
"Gaining Perspective: Seeing EE Through Different Lenses" in
Oakland, CA
, on October 10-13, 2012.
2012 Courses for Educators from the Green Ambassadors Institute and UCLA Extension - Scholarships Available!
Professional development for educators and administrators: Learn how to use the environment as the context for interdisciplinary learning that connects students to their campus, community and environment, and empowers them to spread solutions beyond their school. 10 Free Scholarships available for 2012 Courses by the Green Ambassadors Institute and UCLA Extension. http://greenambassadors.org/educators/
Curriculum: "Connecting Students to the World", Lessons for Literacy, Science, and Social Studies
"Connecting Students to the World" is a K-3 teacher guide offering engaging interdisciplinary lessons with accessible, hands-on, fun ways for young students to learn about global and sustainability issues, and discover ways to be involved in solutions. It's aligned with language arts, science, social studies and Common Core educational standards for easy integration. Free downloadable Preview: "Chapter 2 - Humans and the Environment".
The NEED Project: Energy Education Resources
The NEED Project began in the 1970s as a one-day celebration of energy education: National Energy Education Day. Growing from a one day celebration with a few NEED activities -- like the ever-popular and newly-updated Energy Carnival -- NEED designs and delivers annually updated curriculum and support for virtually any classroom and at any grade level.
PEAK Energy Education Program
The Energy Coalition’s PEAK program is a free, comprehensive standards-based educational program designed to empower elementary and middle school students with the knowledge to manage energy use in their homes, schools and communities. Through hands-on learning, students are inspired to take action to create a more sustainable world and to educate others about how to use energy wisely.
Teaching Compassion Makes Us Happier, Smarter, and Healthier
The TEDx Golden Gate ED: Teach Compassion Conference was a full day of inspiration, insight, interaction, and delight as participants learned about the new science of compassion, and how compassion helps transform schools and communities.
Green Teacher: A Resource for Comprehensive School Greening
Green Teacher is a non-profit organization that publishes resources to help educators, both inside and outside of schools, to promote global and environmental awareness among young people from elementary through high school.
Sustainability Curricula Directory
At Green Schools Initiative, we have been working to compile some of the best teaching tools and make them more widely known to educators.
Curriculum: California's Education and Environment Initiative
Get California's national model curriculum and delve deeper into teaching for sustainability. UPDATE: Revisions to the 85 K-12 EEI Curriculum units are complete. All units are now available for free download. Visit www.californiaeei.org.
Curriculum: Nourish California Offers Multimedia Resources to Engage and Inspire
Nourish California is a bold new initiative designed to increase food literacy and build healthy communities. K-12 teachers, school administrators, farm-to-school and garden coordinators, food service staff, health professionals, and nonprofit support providers are invited to join the network and receive a free DVD and curriculum at www.nourishlife.org.
Curriculum: "The Whole Plate -- A Return to Real Food"
"The Whole Plate: A Return to Real Foods" is a 4-Unit course in nutrition, cooking and food systems that integrates hands-on lessons like preparing and preserving food with critical analysis of nutrition issues and food systems. By the end of each unit, students know how to make a complete meal for their families -- in fact it's a course assignment!
Interactive Green Mapping
Here's a fun new interactive resource for schools and kids -- The Green Map. Students can learn about the environmental resources in their area as they create maps of the green resources in their own communities.
Curriculum: Cool the Earth, A Ready-to-Run Free Nationwide K-8 Program
Cool The Earth is a free, ready-to-run program that educates K-8 students and their families about climate change and inspires them to take simple actions to reduce their carbon emissions.
Curriculum: "Giant Sequoias" from Save the Redwoods League
Save the Redwood League has added "Giant Sequoias," a free new series of educational materials for K-12 students, to its storehouse of educational resources.
Curriculum: "Buy, Use, Toss?" Facing the Future's Free Curriculum on Consumption in the U.S.
Facing the Future has FREE curriculum all about consumption and the materials economy. Students map the impact, consider the costs, and redesign systems in this series of 10 fully-planned lessons designed for grades 9-12. Can be companion to Story of Stuff video. Great for Earth Day!
Curriculum: Fair Trade Lesson Plans, Online Ecology, Oceans & Climate Resources
Curriculum is an important tool in a comprehensive green schools program. New, greener curriculum is bubbling up all over. Here are a few resources to check out.
Curriculum: Oil Spills - Impacts and Solutions, from EEWeek
EEWeek is offering free K-12 resources and lesson plans to help students understand the impacts and issues around oil spills, clean-up, and how spills might be avoided in the future.
Green Ambassadors Program at Environmental Charter High School Nurtures Student Advocates
For Environmental Charter High School's (ECHS) Green Ambassadors, innovative project-based learning results in empowered youth, and widening circles of positive change in the school's Los Angeles area community.
Riparian Lab Brings Afterschool Creek Ecology to a School Near You
Thanks to its kid appeal, the Watershed Project's growing Riparian Lab afterschool program has mushroomed in just one year from one site to four, each in a different watershed. The program's success has many factors: it's fun, flexible, informative, develops leadership, and helps kids have a positive and meaningful impact on their local creek.
AACTE Launches Special Study Group on Education for Sustainability
Education faculty from around the country are launching a new Education for Sustainability Special Study Group (EFS SSG) within the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). The SSG will provide a forum for teacher educators interested in integrating sustainability into the pre-service and on-going professional development of PreK-12 teachers.
3rd annual Nature's Voices Student Story Contest for 6-12 Graders
Submit your story about how green schools and environmental education have inspired, changed, or transformed you. Grand prize includes a paid trip to be a keynote speaker at the Green Schools Conference in March 2016. Other cash prizes too!