 Join Us on the 2018 Green Strides Tour in Missouri
ED-GRS and its Green Strides outreach initiative share promising
practices and resources in the areas of safe, healthy, and sustainable school
environments; nutrition and outdoors physical activity; and environmental
education. As part of its Green Strides outreach, ED conducts an
annual tour intended to spotlight the work of past and present honorees, and
bring more attention to their practices. This year’s tour will take
place Oct. 24–25 in St. Louis area schools.
The tour will
highlight how schools can use their grounds in hands-on,
project-based learning, and citizen science to teach an array of content areas,
the joy of physical activity in the outdoors, as well as the benefits of
nutritious, school-garden-grown produce. See the full schedule and
register to attend. >>>>
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Congratulations to the 2018 U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools, District Sustainability Awardees, and Postsecondary Sustainability Awardees. View the honorees and read about their work on the Green Strides website and ED awards page. Three of the honorees are spotlighted below. Watch them receive their awards on Facebook live on Sept. 19 at 2 p.m.
ET.
 Outdoor learning labs at Gove Elementary School increase the quantity and quality of outdoor time for students. From left to right are the school’s Recycled Gator Hole, information station with weather-resistant lesson plans, and butterfly houses for observation and documentation.
Gove Elementary School,
Belle Glade, Florida
Gove
Elementary landscaping includes native species, retention ponds, and
cisterns for edible garden irrigation. Gove has reduced energy use by 74
percent and water needs by 57 percent in just two years. The student
Recycle Club is committed to educating peers and staff about recycling.
The administration rewards carpoolers with designated parking spots.
Despite the challenge of being nestled in sugar cane fields that are burned
seasonally, Gove Elementary School has been recognized as an
Asthma-Friendly School through the American Lung Association. The
school’s Positive Behavior Intervention Support Team promotes the interconnectedness
of the environment, safety, and wellness. Gove was the first school in
the Glades to implement a fruit-and-vegetable daily snack program.
There is a vegetable and herb garden on campus, which inspires students to
make healthy eating choices. All Gove students in kindergarten through
sixth grade participate in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and
math) classes that engage students in projects such as building historical and
current relief maps of the Florida Everglades; creating Everglade model
habitats using upcycled materials, and participating in “ECO-dramas” to reenact
how alligators are keystone species. The school butterfly garden is an
ideal setting to learn about a variety of topics across the curriculum. The
garden has also proven to be an excellent setting for teaching teamwork,
empathy, respect, and responsibility, and for building confidence and
pride. >>>>
 TTUSD students know that water quality is an important part of forest and watershed health. For this reason, monitoring local water quality is a regular service-learning project.
Tahoe Truckee
Unified School District, Truckee, California
Tahoe Truckee Unified
School District (TTUSD) works with local nonprofit Sierra Watershed Education
Partnerships (SWEP) to offer comprehensive watershed education and service learning.
The first Sustainability Club in TTUSD was started in 2010; by 2013, these clubs
were introduced across all sites. TTUSD has a certified energy manager;
the district’s first green building project was built in 2005; and all current
projects are designed to LEED Silver standards. Efforts to reduce water
use include using reclaimed water for bus washing, installing smart irrigation
controllers, fitting restrooms with low-flow fixtures, making auto-off nozzles
standard on all hoses, putting in drip irrigation in most landscaping areas,
and implementing a leak detection program. Salad bars using locally grown
produce are at all sites. A project‐based learning program includes both River
Ecology and Marine Biology courses. In the Winter Discovery Program,
students visit a snow school up to three times within three months for
different winter ecology lessons. They cross-country ski for an hour and
then do a winter ecology lesson with a SWEP instructor in a heated yurt with tables, chairs, monitors, and
microscopes. At the annual Earth Day event in Squaw Valley, over 200
hundred TTUSD students share sustainability efforts that schools are making in
the areas of energy, waste, and water conservation; run educational outreach
booths; lead musical
performances; and put on a popular Trashion Show. >>>>
 A Southside student takes great pride in a plant she has grown from seedling.
Southside Occupational
Academy High School, Chicago, Illinois
Southside
Occupational Academy is a vocational school of 270 special needs students
between the ages of 16 and 22 on Chicago’s south side. The horticulture class
there uses the outside space for gardening various ornamental plants as well as
fruits and vegetables. The custodial course uses green cleaning
materials, and includes a landscaping unit, where native plants are used to
create rain gardens. The lawn is maintained by students, who rake the
clippings for mulching the school orchard or adding to the growing
vermicomposting program. The agriculture course has students planting
trees, perennial bulbs and grasses, and native pollinator habitats. In
carpentry lab, students have constructed honey bee hives for campus, in
addition to raising a poultry coop that houses a combined 50 chickens and
ducks, and produces over a dozen eggs a day that are used by the culinary lab
or sold to fund additional programs. Public transportation is the best
way for students to get from place to place while also helping the
environment. Three times a day, teachers read or play a meditative video
or script for students. Culinary arts, health, and physical education
classes all contribute to physical and mental health. The importance of
respecting the environment is incorporated into every class at Southside.
This fortification of environmental literacy incorporated throughout the
curriculum has established a culture of young environmental stewards, as well
as kind and compassionate young adults >>>>
 Every Kid in a Park Continues for Fourth Year
Every
Kid in a Park encourages stewardship of public lands by introducing children
and underserved communities to park sites, forests, and seashores, as well as
recreational opportunities within these spaces. The program provides free
passes to fourth-graders and their accompanying families to access hundreds of
parks, lands, and waters for a year. To obtain a pass, a fourth-grader should
get an adult’s permission, and then visit www.everykidinapark.gov to complete an educational activity, and download and
print the paper pass voucher. Some state parks are also honoring the pass. >>>>
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 Recycle-Bowl and America Recycles Day Open Registration
Keep
America Beautiful offers two fall events to educate and engage school
communities. School registration opened Aug. 6 for the Recycle-Bowl (Oct. 15–Nov.
15) competition or to register an America Recycles Day (Nov. 15)
event. >>>>
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 Spotlight on a Resource: Stop School Pests
Stop School Pests is
an online training and professional development course for K–12 employees to
reduce pests and pesticides, and improve school health for children and staff by
using an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approach. Individualized online
training, in addition to a general IPM Basics training, is available for facility
managers, maintenance staff, administrative staff, teachers, food service staff,
custodial staff, landscape and grounds staff, and school nurses. The
website is hosted by the IPM Institute of America with support from the North
Central IPM Center and the National Education Association, and can be used by
anyone wishing to learn more about how IPM can improve school
health. Participants receive a certificate for taking the training
after a short quiz at the end of the module. >>>>
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The Green
Schools Conference and Expo (GSCE) is now accepting session proposals for
the 2019 conference, to be held April 8–9, 2019, in St. Paul, Minnesota, in
partnership with IMPACT, a regional sustainability conference. Proposals are
being accepted under four categories: environmental impact, health and
well-being, environmental and sustainability literacy, and whole
school/district sustainability. Session proposals must be submitted online
by Monday Sept. 24 at 11:59 p.m. CST. >>>>
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 Registration for EPA Campus RainWorks Challenge Opens in September
The Campus RainWorks Challenge engages with postsecondary students to foster a dialogue
about stormwater management and showcase the environmental, economic, and
social benefits of green infrastructure practices. The student teams design an innovative green infrastructure project for their campus that
effectively manages stormwater pollution while benefiting the campus community
and the environment. Participating teams must email their entries to RainWorks@epa.gov by Dec. 14. >>>>
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 Apply for a GreenWorks! Environmental Education Grant by
Sept. 30
Project Learning Tree
offers grants of up to $1,000 to schools and youth organizations for environmental
service-learning projects that link classroom learning to the real world.
Students implement an action project that they help design to green their school or
to improve an aspect of their neighborhood’s environment. The
projects partner students with their whole school, local businesses, and/or
community organizations, and provide opportunities for student
leadership. >>>>
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 The
Green Strides Webinar Series Continues Through the Fall
The
Green Strides Webinar Series has promoted over 1,000 sessions that provide free
tools to reduce schools' environmental impact and costs, improve health and
wellness, and teach effective environmental education. Consult the webinar calendar, and submit
suggestions for listing additional free, publically available webinars related
to school, district, and postsecondary sustainability to ed.green.ribbon.schools@ed.gov. (Note: All times
listed are EST.)
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Aug. 23, 6:30–7:30 p.m. NASA Educational Resources for Teaching Life Skills
(NASA)
Aug. 28, 5–6 p.m. The Importance
of Fresh Water (NASA)
Aug. 29, 1–2:30 p.m. ENERGY STAR
Scores and Metrics after the 9/26 Updates (EPA)
Aug. 30, 1–2 p.m. Portfolio
Manager 301
(EPA)
Aug. 30, 6–7 p.m. Robotics on a
Budget (NASA)
Sept. 4, 1–2:30 p.m. Portfolio
Manager 101
(EPA)
Sept. 5, 3–4 p.m. Professional
Skills in Sustainability (AASHE)
Sept. 5, 6–7 p.m. From Earth to
the Moon (NASA)
Sept. 6, 5–6 p.m. Solving STEM
Problems with Field Study and Data Collection (NASA)
Sept. 11, 1–2 p.m. Energy Treasure
Hunts
(EPA)
Sept. 11, 2–3 p.m. Portfolio
Manager 201
(EPA)
Sept. 12, 3–4:20 p.m. The
Climate-Friendly Global Academic Conference with a Human Touch (AASHE)
Sept. 13, 1–2 p.m. Portfolio Manager 301 (EPA)
Sept. 13, 3–4 p.m. Creating a
Participatory School Nutrition Program (FRAC)
Sept. 17, 6:30–7:30 p.m. Using Earth
Observations to Talk about Snow and Ice (NASA)
Sept. 18, 6:30–7:30 p.m. An Orientation
to EPDC Digital Badging (NASA)
Sept. 19, 1–2 p.m. Saving Water in Restrooms with WaterSense (EPA)
Sept. 19, 3–4 p.m. How to Build the
Best Bike Share Program for your Campus (AASHE)
Plan a Green Apple Day of Service at Your School This Fall
A Green Apple Day of Service gives parents, teachers, students, companies, and local organizations the opportunity to transform all schools into healthy, safe, and productive learning environments through local service projects. Check out project ideas, pick up helpful event resources, and register your project online. >>>>.
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The 2018 AASHE Conference and Expo Is Oct. 2–5 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s
(AASHE’s) annual conference is the largest stage in North America to exchange
effective models, policies, research, collaborations, and transformative
actions that advance sustainability in higher education and surrounding
communities. With the theme Global Goals: Rising to the Challenge, the
2018 AASHE Conference & Expo will examine the critical role of higher
education in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. >>>>
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 The 2018 NAAEE Conference and Research Symposium to be Held Oct. 9–13 in Spokane, Washington
For
more than four decades, the North American Association for Environmental
Education has convened one of the leading annual conferences for environmental
education professionals, from classroom teachers and teacher educators, to
nature center staff, to climate science researchers, and everyone in between.
Averaging 1,000 participants each year, the event is designed to promote
innovation, networking, learning, and the dissemination of best
practices. This year’s conference, with the theme EE: A Force for the
Future, is in Spokane, Washington. >>>>
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 Green Clean Schools ISSA/INTERCLEAN Educational Facilities Track Is Oct. 29–30 in Dallas, Texas
This two-day program will provide facility directors at schools and universities and their teams with the knowledge and tools necessary to support healthier, safer cleaning programs that promote learning. Together with leaders in the field of green cleaning in schools, participants will examine Healthy Schools Campaign’s 5 Steps to Green Cleaning in Schools, a guide to healthier cleaning in educational facilities, through a combination of case studies, deep dives into practical applications, and panel presentations focused on new and emerging trends in the field of green cleaning in schools. >>>>
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 LearningSCAPES 2018 on Nov. 1–4 in Chicago, Illinois
Association
for Learning Environments ’ mission is to
connect those whose passion is to create the best possible physical learning
spaces for encouraging innovation,
critical thinking, collaborative teamwork, and other skills in order to empower
students to succeed in a rapidly changing world. Its LearningSCAPES
2018 conference includes educational sessions, keynotes, and a showcase of
state-of-the-art tools that move learning into the future through thoughtful
school facilities. >>>>
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EDspaces is the gathering place for architects, facility planners, designers, administrators, and dealers to learn about trends and experience the latest products and services to enhance student learning through
advanced school facilities. Leaders
from school districts and colleges, architects, interior designers, dealers, and
exhibitors collaborate in the transformation of physical educational
environments. >>>>
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Greenbuild 2018 to be Held Nov.
14–16 in Chicago, Illinois
Greenbuild is the world's largest
conference and expo dedicated to green building. It features three days of
inspiring speakers, invaluable networking opportunities, industry showcases,
LEED workshops, and tours
of the host city's green buildings. >>>>
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Connect
With Green Strides
Green Strides:
Resources for School Facilities, Health, and Environment
U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools
Facebook: @EDGreenRibbonSchools
Twitter: @EDGreenRibbon
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