How 'Green' is your School?
Investigate!
Getting your students involved in investigating your school to find ways to go green helps to build student engagement, involvement, awareness, knowledge, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills in a relevant and real world context.
Developed from the Project Learning Tree Green Schools! investigations and the Eco-Schools USA investigations, the Kansas Green Schools of Excellence investigations provide teachers, students, parents and community members with initial investigations to begin explorations in the following areas:
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ENERGY INVESTIGATIONS
Energy may be the most important environmental issue of our time. If you think about nearly any other environmental issue — air or water quality, land use, transportation, global climate change, or solid waste management, to name some examples — you will find that it is related to the issue of energy.
Energy affects our lives every day. It keeps us warm in the winter and cool in the summer, it allows us to easily travel from place to place, and keeps our food fresh and safe to eat. Energy is not just an environmental issue; it is a quality of life issue too.
Energy management challenges bring together the fields of economics, environmental science, sociology, political science, health, and engineering. A more informed citizenry has the potential to come up with better solutions to our energy problems and knows the importance of reducing the amount of energy used in the first place. The role of educators is fundamental to this process. The students in your classroom will be the policy makers, scientists, and voters of tomorrow. It is critical to help students realize that they can make decisions and take responsible action, which in turn can have positive effects on their community.
This investigation will help students become more aware of the energy they use every day. They will see the connections among the energy they use, natural resources, and pollution. The results of the investigation will help students develop action plans for reducing energy use at their school.
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WASTE & RECYCLING INVESTIGATIONS
The average person creates about four pounds of garbage a day, translating to almost 1600 pounds of garbage in a year. We throw away bottles, cans, food waste, electronics, plastics, and other items that make up the 220 million tons of garbage that we create in the United States each year. That is enough garbage to cover Texas, twice! Paper makes up the majority of the waste we throw away, making up about 28% or 68 million tons of all the waste produced on an annual basis. In 2018, the amount of waste produced per person was 4.9 pounds per day. This results in the average person producing around 1788 pounds of trash a year!
"Paper makes up the majority of the waste we throw away"
It is estimated that upwards of 80% of the waste we create can be recycled or composted. By recycling and composting, we reclaim resources that would otherwise literally go to waste. Recycling, composting, reuse and reduction of waste also helps to reduce energy use and can save schools money on waste hauling fees.
Studying about waste, recycling, composting, source reduction, reuse and composting in schools provides unique and relevant opportunities for students to engage in scientific inquiry, problem-solving and critical thinking as they investigate, gather data, analyze and propose solutions. Waste offers real world opportunities for development of scientific content knowledge and process skills in the areas of chemistry, biology, engineering, observation, inference, measurement, data collection and analysis, communication and more.
Waste management challenges bring together the fields of economics, environmental science, sociology, political science, health, and engineering. A more informed citizenry has the potential to come up with better solutions to our waste problems and knows the importance of reducing the amount of waste in our homes, schools and communities. The role of educators is fundamental to this process. The students in your classroom will be the policy makers, scientists, and voters of tomorrow. It is critical to help students realize that they can make decisions and take responsible action, which in turn can have positive effects on their community.
(Source: EPA, http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/index.htm)
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WATER INVESTIGATIONS
How is water used in your school? Are there ways to make your school water use more efficient? This investigation will help your team identify water practices and will help in thinking of ways to identify ways in which your school can conserve water! Your results will inform school staff and students where they can make improvements and also to generate an action plan to improve water efficiency and conservation for students and staff.
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HEALTHY SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT INVESTIGATIONS
Improve the health of your school, both indoors and out! This investigation will help your team identify air quality and transportation management practices and will help in thinking of ways to modify these practices to make your school greener and healthier! Your results will inform school staff and students where they can make improvements and also to generate an action plan to improve school health for students and staff.
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THE LEARNING COMMUNITY
Discover what makes your school and your school grounds special as a learning community! Students will explore the different areas of your school and help make improvements.
This investigation will help your team identify improvements for your school grounds, and ideas to help local wildlife, flora and fauna, the school community, and your neighborhood, city, state, country and world.
Your results will inform school staff and students where they can make improvements and to also generate an action plan.
One of the best ways to improve your school and community is through the OWLS program, coordinated by the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. Through this program students will have the opportunity to help create and maintain an outdoor space where they will gain exposure to native wildlife and plant communities and engage in interdisciplinary study through hands-on outdoor learning.
Please visit the Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks' website links for more information about how to start an OWLS at your school and to see a directory of OWLS in Kansas.
Additional OWLS Information:
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Case study of a local Kansas school's OWLS for an exmaple of how to get started with your own OWLS!
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