THE GREEN CLASSROOM TODAY
Among the many issues that teachers are concerned about today, “global warming” is one that could significantly transform classrooms and ultimately schools into green environments. Until recently, learning about the environment was a one week lesson at many schools during Earth Week, but issues like this are now being addressed in district meetings, staff meetings, and classrooms on a regular basis. This website will discuss many current environmental issues. Some will be in-depth and others will be revisited at a later date with more current information and lesson plan ideas.
Below you will find the following topics in order or you can scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the group of topics you would like to view.
Introduction (continued)
WATER
Affluence and Water Use
Quality of Water
Health Needs
Recess and Drinking Water
Washing Bottles and Chemicals
Class Environment
Time Management
Curriculum
School Yard Science
Word Sorts (see School Yard Science)
The Future
Receiving Future Newsletters
Donations
Bibliography (on a separate page)
Orignial Art and Drawings (see Gallery)
Textbooks for curriculums have always listed endangered species like the Spotted Owl, whose habitat of old-growth trees is disappearing as more and more forests are cut down. But now in discussions with children in classes from Kindergarten to 5th grade, they have more concerns than ever: the great number of bees that are dying, the sharks that are endangered, polar bear homes melting with the ice caps, wild salmon disappearing, and squid taking over bays as they consume the fish! Current sources list over 16,000 endangered species with over 40,000 species of concern. Everyday, teachers and students learn new facts about how the earth is rapidly changing. Pollution and overconsumption are at the core of these concerns.
The connections being made between "global warming" and the current curriculum will shape teachers' and students' thinking and affect the community well past the next decade. Teachers need a master plan that is as finely woven as the web of life, so that students understand how interconnected all environmental issues are. For instance, when students in a 1st and a 5th grade class were asked if they thought what happens to the air can affect countries on the other side of the globe, most guessed no. There are many ways that teachers can present material about protecting the environment to students by using the current teaching methods and standards advocated by their districts and universities. This can be as simple as a mini-lesson and/or discussion inserted along with the prescribed curriculum, a project that grade-level teams are adopting to incorporate into the science lesson plans, or as complex as a district and university redesigning their courses to include regular studies of the environment at all levels.
A green classroom in itself could include everything from the way recycling is handled to what students learn about the Food Guide Pyramid. Districts are already starting to make changes. Some have come up with or revisited ideas such as a health coordinator for the district, students creating a plan to use recycling more extensively in the cafeteria, and a school garden that has a course taught in the out-of-doors by science teachers.
It may take all our resourcefulness to come up with ways to “reduce, reuse, and recycle.” Students respond with enthusiasm to the encouragement that they can be the ones to find solutions to reverse “global warming.” They are, as current educational theories suggest, creating knowledge for themselves.
THE GREEN CLASSROOM - Introduction
