Visiting Arbor Ridge Elementary School in Orlando, Florida
At the recent Green Schools National Conference in Orlando, Florida, we had the privilege to visit Arbor Ridge Elementary School. Arbor Ridge has received first place in the green schools recognition program, the Florida Green Apple award by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Green Ribbons Schools award by the US Department of Education.
We toured the school and the campus and a team of faculty members attended our afternoon workshop on vertical articulation of Education for Sustainability. Among many hey have composting in the cafeteria, a living garden.
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Chicago School Kid Discovers New Cancer-Fighting Compound in Bird Poo
Under the close supervision of professors from the University of Illinois, middle schoolers were trained how to safely collect and grow bacteria. One youth identified a bacterium that might create new cancer treatments and antibiotics.
They were part of a 14-week educational outreach program to promote scientific careers with hands-on experience.
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Great news: Montana Supreme Court votes 6-1 in favour of young climate activists
The Supreme Court in Montana agreed with the young activists who asserted the state was not living up to its constitution by not considering climate change when approving fossil fuel projects.
Melissa Hornbein, a senior attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center, which served as co-counsel for the plaintiffs along with Our Children’s Trust, said the decision would force Montana state agencies to assess the greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts of all future fossil fuel projects when deciding whether to approve or renew them.
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Third Grade Food Waste Warriors
Gwinnett Students Vigilance Keeps Lots Of Food Out Of Trash Can by Arlinda Smith Broady
Gwinnett County schools were participants in a nationwide initiative on food waste and its impact on the planet. Students’ findings have led to changes that mean a lot less food ends up in the garbage.
At Mason Elementary, one of 13 Gwinnett schools in the Food Waste Warriors Project the 3rd grade class took on the task of determining how much food is wasted, why it’s wasted and finding ways to turn those numbers around. The students succeeded in reducing food waste by 53% over 12 weeks.
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The Path Forward for Education and Climate Action Webinar
This is a great webinar that was hosted by the Center for Universal Education and Education International to discuss the path forward for education and climate action, and the recent Brookings policy brief “Unleashing the creativity of teachers and students to combat climate change: An opportunity for global leadership.”
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How Project Based Learning is the Key to Sustainability TEDxYouth@AvonRiver
16-year-old E Wen Wong is the founder of plastic pollution organisation, P.S. Our Beaches and she has an important message for all of us: sustainability starts with sustainable education. E Wen Wong is a passionate environmental advocate, innovator, and founder of plastic pollution organisation, P.S. Our Beaches. E Wen was a recipient of one of this year’s New Zealand Youth Awards for her commitment to the environment and, in the past two years, has initiated litter audits, awareness posts on sustainability initiatives and interviews with the Department of Conservation and UNESCO to raise the profile of the beach pollution issue.
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16-year-old Sues The Government Over Climate Change
Xiuhtezcatl Roske-Martinez is not your average 16-year-old. He’s busy mobilizing an army of teenagers in over 50 countries to demand greener policies from world leaders. He’s also in a race to save climate change data before the Trump administration can destroy it.
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The Key Is Bees
There are beautiful moments in education when learning about the world around us also teaches us about ourselves. A scientific study about bumblebees’ spatial relationships and color perception, published in the December issue of the Royal Society’s Biology Letter and written and devised entirely by a group of 8-10 year-olds, is an example of just such an opportunity.
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Reflection on the EfS Curriculum Design Studio
Last summer, I had the pleasure of taking one of the most productive professional development workshops in my sixteen years of teaching.
The Cloud Institute had asked participants of their Education for Sustainability Curriculum Design Studio to come prepared with a lesson plan or unit which would be worked on and viewed through the lens of the EfS standards. This made all the difference. I chose our fall science unit on Water/Salt Marsh Ecology.
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