Jessica De Simone

Educating Today for a Greener Tomorrow

When approaching this project, I wanted to make sure it was related to my field of

study and could be helpful to me as a future educator. I am currently enrolled in Drexel

University’s Teacher Certification Program (PK-4), so I will be working within schools

and I will have the opportunity to educate young children about environmental concerns

and issues. I wanted to find out what some teachers and public schools are currently

doing to address the issues of sustainability and environmental awareness in and out of

the classroom. My inspiration for this project began with an article that I found on

www.greenschoolsalliance.org. A science teacher, Geoffrey Selling, wrote the article,

about a school located not far from where I live. Geoffrey Selling, along with the help of

students at Germantown Friends, led a school wide initiative to reduce the amount of

waste accumulated during school lunch periods. This school has a 5th grade

environmental action club that selects a project or goal each year. The students

themselves determine the problem by surveying the campus and school community and

found that trash that was being improperly recycled and litter were their main concerns.

The students developed and implemented a plan, No Waste Lunches, to not only reduce

the amount of trash that was being brought to school in home-packaged-lunches, but also

the amount of garbage and trash that was produced in the cafeteria.

Mainly the students who were part of a 5th grade science club led the project but

all grade levels participated. It was their job to find a problem and create and implement

a plan to address it. I loved the idea of addressing environmental awareness through

hands on projects where students not only learn about things they can do to help the

planet but also construct ways to implement what they are learning. These types of

projects build a sense of community and demonstrate to students that if they all work

together, they can create change. This project not only affected the decisions and actions

of the students, but it also spread on to teachers and out into the local community. These

students were able to impact and educate an entire community about how important it is

to limit the amount of garbage they produce by using reusable containers and water

bottles, and by reusing bags and carrying lunch containers that can be washed and reused.

Instead of using things that are disposable, students discovered that reusable items are the

best way to reduce waste. These students were environmentally concerned, informed,

and on their way to becoming environmentally effective citizens.

I was able to relate the No Waste Lunches article to an article I found about

Maryland public schools. In 2011, Maryland became the first state to pass a law

requiring students to be environmentally literate as part of a high graduation requirement.

Geoffrey Selling stated that as the No Waste Lunches project continued over the school

year that the urgency of participating receded a bit at times. This reminds us how hard it

is to change the behavior of people, to keep them motivated and really make a long term

or permanent change in their lives. When I found out that Maryland requires students to

learn about environment concerns and issues in order to graduate from high school, I

thought that this was a wonderful way for public schools to enforce environmental

literacy beginning in elementary school. This would help the school community to

eventually create citizens who are dedicated to making environmentally conscious

decisions (permanently). If we constantly educate our students about the importance of

taking care of the environment and have them recognize problems in their own

communities and create initiatives to address these problems, this can be a great start to

creating a generation of individuals who will be environmentally respectful and active to

keep the environmental movement ball rolling.

I wanted to see what schools in other areas of the world were doing to promote

environmental concern and sustainability as well. I found a video on YouTube about a

school in Sydney, Australia, where students are learning how to create sustainable

schools for a better future. These students are planting gardens, growing food, recycling

waste and making a big difference on the impact they have on their environment. The

school has several initiatives they use to promote ecological awareness like Waste Free

Wednesdays, fruit and vegetable composting, paper recycling, and the planting of a

native, veggie, and fruit gardens. The school looks at sustainability issues with their

students and creates innovative ways for them to apply what they have learned; for

example, they use rainwater tanks and compost bins to provide the necessary resources

for their three different gardens. Initiatives and projects like these show students not only

the importance of sustainability issues and environmental concern but also like I stated

above, the importance of working together to achieve bigger goals. These students are

learning that they can make a difference and, as a community, they can make a bigger

difference together.

I have found that although there are some motivating tools provided by the

United States and other countries that encourage schools and school districts to teach

environmental literacy and even award those schools for their efforts, the most important

people involved in making decisions about how children and future generations receive

and apply information about sustainability are our teachers. It is the teachers who are

creating school initiatives to teach students about things like conserving energy,

conserving resources by using rainwater tanks to water school gardens, using compost

bins to naturally fertilize, using items that are reusable to reduce waste, and how to

recycle. As a future educator, it is my responsibility to show young children the

importance of respect, respect for one another, respect for the environment and respect

for the one and only earth we have all been given to take care of so that it can continue to

produce the resources that we need to live happy, healthy, and prosperous lives.

I enjoyed reading about some of the ways public schools are addressing

environmental issues and feel more confident knowing how many resources are available

to help teachers educate students about things they can do to make their schools more

eco-friendly and sustainable. I have gained ideas and inspiration through this research

that will help me to engage students and motivate them to participate in activities and

constructive approaches to taking care of the environment. Young children need to not

only learn about recycling, reusing and reducing, but they also need to be engaged in

innovative practices, that is why these school wide initiatives are so important. The

picture that I chose to represent my artifact illustrates young preschool aged children

applying what they learned about the three R’s to an actual project. They created a piece

of art (a robot) out of trash they had collected, which included empty water bottles,

newspapers, cereal boxes, scrap paper, etc. The students in Sydney not only learned

about sustainability but also applied what they had learned by creating and maintaining

gardens, using rainwater tanks to water them, and using fruit and vegetable scraps for

compost to naturally fertilize their soil. Through my research I learned the importance of

having students physically involved in all aspects of creating projects that will reinforce

their knowledge and application of environmental awareness and sustainability. This will

enforce reapplication of skills and knowledge in the future by making lessons in

sustainability and ecological awareness much more meaningful and memorable.

Resources

Birney, A., Kellard, B., & Reed, J. (2011). The journey of sustainable schools:

Developing and embedding sustainability. National College for School

Leadership. 1-36.

Cpl. Bricker, T. (Photographer). (2012, April). Lanell Mayberry and some of her pre-

kindergarten class pose with their recycling project Rachel, a full sized robot

made entirely of recyclable products at Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow's

Child Development Center, April 27. The class constructed Rachel while being

taught about the importance of the three R's: reduce, reuse, and recycle. [Digital

image]. Retrieved from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USMC-120427-

M-PG598-001.jpg

Koebler, J. (2011, July 18). Maryland to require environmental literacy for graduation.

[Web blog]. Retrieved from http://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/high-

school-notes/2011/07/18/maryland-to-require-environmental-literacy-for-

graduation

Pathways to Green Schools. (2012). Promoting green and sustainable schools in

Pennsylvania. Retrieved from http://www.pathwaystogreenschools.org/index.html

Selling, G. (2010). No waste lunches: An environmental action club project.

Retrieved on April 17, 2015 from http://www.greenschoolsalliance.org/no-waste-

lunches-environmental-action-club-project

Waverly Council. (2014, April 1). Sustainable schools- kids growing a better tomorrow

[Video file]. Retrieved on April 18, 2015 from https://www.youtube/watch?

v=sT3LtIW4t44