Green Classroom

Featured in the October, 2006 issue of the NJEA REVIEW

Green classrooms: Teaching about renewable, sustainable and environmental energy issues

By Patricia Bruder, EIRC

Thanks to high gasoline prices and the raging debate over global warming, energy policy and the environment are back in the news again. The resources below will assist you in addressing these topics in your classroom, without injecting the political bias often associated with these subjects. In addition, some of these sites will help your school to “go green”!

Renewable/Sustainable energy

Free hands-on, downloadable, multidisciplinary lesson plans including new plans from the California Green Schools program are available at the Alliance to Save Energy Promoting Energy Efficiency Worldwide website. You can also teach students valuable lessons using the Home Energy Checkup and Audit that kids can do with their parents.

For renewable energy lessons on solar thermal, photovoltaic, biodiesel processing and wind energy, see the curriculum guides at Upper Cape Tech (MA) from the electrical, environmental science, science, plumbing and heating, ventilating, air conditioning and environmental technology programs.

Energy lesson plans, curriculum, and educational materials from the U.S. Department of Energy include workbooks, activities and articles including the Global Sun Temperature Project which takes place from Oct. 2-Nov. 3.

The Power of Solar Energy is a series of lesson plans for grades 7-12 that provides basic information on solar energy and photovoltaics. You’ll find a timeline, glossary and links to school-based solar energy projects.

Wind Energy and Related Links from Spirit Lake Community Schools (IA) features links to curriculum, Hot Potatoes (enables you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the Internet), the National Hurricane Center and the American Wind Energy Page, fact sheets, and From Windmills to Whirligigs (a quirky site you’ve got to check out).

Northeast Sustainable Energy Association (NESA) offers free resources from grants through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Massachusetts Highway Department, and the National Tree Trust.

Are you incorporating sustainability standards in your curriculum? Use the checklist from the Sustainability Education Handbook, Resource Guide for K-12 Teachers, Evaluation Criteria for Sustainability Standards for a list of 13 key evaluation points for your curriculum.

The U.S. EPA maintains a website called Green Communities – Students and Sustainability.

Energy conservation

A great site for kids is the State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) from Texas (there’s an adult link too) with creative and interactive sites like the Energy Hog, the Atoms Family, Dr. E’s Energy Lab (Wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy, renewable energy, alternative fuels), Watt’s New, Roofus’ Neighborhood (build a solar oven) and the Energy Kid’s Page (experiments, fun and games, a glossary of energy terms, and energy slang – no a “horse head” is not something eerie from “The Godfather” and you wouldn’t want to eat this “yellow cake”), and many more.

Greening Schools is a joint effort of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and the Illinois Waste Management and Research Center. The purpose of the project is to help schools provide a safe and healthy environment that can save money, improve learning conditions, and increase efficiency. The project is also designed to provide teachers with standards-based tools to introduce the concepts of waste reduction and pollution prevention to students. A great deal of information is organized and searchable by grade and type of resource (experiment, fact sheet, checklist, etc.).

Classroom Projects is a lesson plan site from the Energy Education Project, a collaborative between Southwestern Michigan College and the Lewis Cass Intermediate School District. Lessons address passive solar energy, home energy savings, solar water heat, energy and thermal storage.

Students can earn a Clean Green Power Certificate at Clean Energy for a Clean Environment by completing a brief energy activity, exploring clean energy sites and conducting an interview with a clean energy producer or user, and having a public display of a completed clean green power project.

Energy Links for Kids from Mrs. Mitchell’s Virtual Classroom is full of links to interesting and interactive sites where kids can learn about energy, solar energy, wind, geothermal, biomass and hydro energy. The teacher’s section links to lesson plans and even more resources for incorporating games, puzzles and experiments in the classroom.

Environmental education (pollution, biodiversity, etc.)

The Curriculum Review Library at the Center for Environmental Education Online at Antioch University is a wealth of curricula related to all subject areas on topics ranging from agriculture and climate change to social action and solar energy aligned to the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) guidelines for excellence. Areas covered are biodiversity, Earth science systems, energy (including alternate energy), environmental issues, food, sustainability and waste.

National Biological Information Infrastructure provides curriculum for K-12 and information on current biological issues including bird conservation node (bird habitats and population data), biodiversity, FrogWeb: amphibian declines and malformations, invasive species (aggressive non-indigenous species), pollinator declines, and West Nile Virus.

Kid Links – Teaching Green from EcoMall includes Dr. Seuss, Lorax- Save the Trees game, Astronomy Picture of the Day, Earth Day Groceries Project, AnimalKind Rescue Kids (International Youth Humane service program), the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) Kid’s Water Page, Kids Against Pollution, Kids as Scientists, and Kids F.A.C.E. (Kids for a Clean Environment®). Just a small caveat: there is a large listing of ads that look like regular links smack in the middle of the website.

Green Teacher is a magazine “by and for educators to enhance environmental and global education across the curriculum at all grade levels.” Each issue contains Perspective Articles, Practical Articles, Ready-To-Use Activities, Resource Listings and Reviews, and School News.

At The Wild Ones from the Children’s Education Project of Wildlife Preservation Trust, kids learn about endangered animals, and meet the people who work to protect them. There is a feature on the bioscape, and a curriculum library with creative ideas for the classroom, school yard and field trips. See also the recommendations under resources for children’s books, reference books, publications, articles, videos, projects and Web resources. The focus section on Sense of Place has a brief opinion piece on the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

If Trees Could Talk: A Curriculum in Environmental History is correlated to National History and Social Studies Standards and meets the indicators for the Guidelines for Excellence developed by the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE). It includes eight modules, an activity assessment form and a sample student worksheet.

Green Facts details, in unbiased reporting, the link between health and the environment information through a series of document summaries on the atmosphere (air pollution, climate change, respiratory diseases), chemicals (arsenic, boron, dioxins, endocrine disruptors, fluoride, mercury, phthalates), diseases (chronic diseases & diet, respiratory diseases), drinking water (arsenic, fluoride, water disinfectants), environmental change (biodiversity, climate change, ecosystem change, fisheries), food & lifestyle (alcohol, aspartame, diet, GM-crops, tobacco), and radiation (Chernobyl, power lines, static fields).

Interdisciplinary curriculum

Greening the Curriculum presents college level course outline/lesson plans from various disciplines. For example, from behavioral studies is a lesson on solid waste/recycling, the speech department presents lesson plans for speech class, and from the business department comes Earth Literacy and Internet Scavenger Hunt. Other topics include environmentalism in essays, the integration of environmental ethics, student awareness of environmental issues, teaching Earth literacy through poetry, and an interesting contribution from the School of Architecture and Interior Design on sustainable design.

The Vocational Information Center Power and Career Guide carries a list of careers in energy and power that includes everything from apprentice stationary engineer to public utilities and welding jobs. All of the links refer to some of the best career information sites in each field including the Occupational Outlook Handbook, and Careership (online career exploration). There is also a long list of resources for curriculum, resources, photos, energy statistics, and specific energy sources.

Greening Across the Chemistry Curriculum from theUniversity of Scranton

incorporates modules, note to instructor and downloadable PowerPoint presentations on the following topics: general chemistry, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, environmental chemistry, polymer chemistry, chemical toxicology, and industrial chemistry.

Going Green describes “green chemistry,” a chemical design process that will help reduce or eliminate the creation of hazardous substances. Green chemistry is guided by the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry, atom energy, less hazardous chemical synthesis, designing safer chemicals, safer solvents and auxiliaries, design for energy efficiency, use of renewable feedstock, reducing derivatives, catalysis, designing for degradation, real-time analysis for pollution prevention, and inherently safer chemistry for accident prevention.

For a look at renewable energy in action, stop by any time to see EIRC’s solar panel installation, or check out the real time energy savings readings at www.eirc.org/green_apple_program/ In addition, EIRC is in the planning stages of building a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Center that will incorporate elements of green building in the construction design and programming (www.eirc.org/challenger_learning_center/).