Get Inspired: 15 Projects for Green School Teachers

15 Projects and Ideas for Green School Teachers

1. Join Roots & Shoots
   Part of the umbrella network of the Jane Goodall Institute, Roots & Shoots is a network of green schools around the world that seek to make a difference locally.


2. Build a School Library
   Work to add books about the environment to your school or classroom library. The Lorax is a timeless classic, but there are also lots of newer books beginning to hit the market. George Saves the World by Lunchtime, The World Came To My Place Today, and The Down to Earth Guide to Global Warming are terrific examples. Old standbys like Ranger Rick and Your Big Backyard (and the new Wild Animal Baby) from National Wildlife Federation are terrific magazines for younger kids and can help them gain an appreciation for nature.


3. Face Climate Change
   Help your kids understand climate change by creating carbon maps of the school and their communities as well. Having them label carbon sources and sinks enables them to see what we’re dealing with globally on a local level in a way they probably never have before. It's a simple idea that you can easily tailor to the level of complexity your students can manage as well as the amount of time you have available in class to create them.


4. Write About It
   Engage your students' imaginations in a writing contest about the future of alternative energy sources quite aptly titled Imagining Tomorrow: Alternate Energy Futures. It's a program of the Foresight Project, and could be a great way for someone like a creative writing teacher to incorporate the environment into their existing curriculum. Last year there was an initial prize money pot of $10,000 nationwide, so there's really a significant financial incentive for students with a sharp mind and a way with words to step up to the plate and produce a potentially award-winning entry.


5. Create Meaningful Art
   Turn the fight against climate change into an art project by asking students to bring in a pair of canvas sneakers and paint them for shoeless children in Africa as part of the Shoes of Hope program. The idea is that inside of every shoe your students include a personalized message to the recipient child in Africa letting them know what personal changes they're making to reduce their carbon footprint and therefore their personal contribution to the problem that is destined to strike children in the Third World hardest of all.


6. Carry a Climate Change Backpack
   Pick up the Climate Change Backpack to share with the other teachers in your school to help educate students about the crisis even while you're on a field trip and find you're in a terrific place for a lesson on the topic.


7. Get Wind Powered
   Kidwind is an incredible project using wind power as a vehicle to help students understand the power of alternative energy. There are kits, classroom tips, and project ideas of all sorts to get involved in.


8. Get Solar Powered
   Sign up for the National Junior Solar Sprint, a fun way to teach kids about solar energy by creating solar-powered race cars.


9. Reuse a Shoe
   Think your students might have loads of extra sneakers lying around at home? Then maybe your classes could organize a local endeavor to gather them up and turn them into running tracks and the like via Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program. It's been going on for years, and schools across America have already gotten involved.


10. Help Protect Wetlands
    Ducks Unlimited offers the opportunity for businesses to partner up with schools and school districts via Project Webfoot to educate students about wetland preservation. Businesses get the tax benefits of a donation to a worthy cause while students get increased knowledge of an important ecosystem. Maybe you've got a class who could benefit from the partnership?


11. Feed Some Pigs
    There's a terrific program in Minnesota where all those scraps from school lunches get shipped to a pig farm where they wind up as food for the local inhabitants rather than piling up at the landfill. It could well serve as the model for a similar partnership if it's logistically possible to team up with a pig farmer in your area.


12. Get Trashy
    How about engaging in a trash reduction contest with the class next door? If that teacher is as environmentally aware as you are it could be a great way to get both sets of students involved in reducing waste, particularly at the elementary level. A cool activity is to have students carry their trash around for one day in a bag attached to their belt or bags. They get a more intimate understanding of just how much trash they produce each day. Competition to get results is not the way to go.


13. Go Frogwatchin'
    Why not get your elementary kids involved in a friendly Frogwatchin' contest if you happen to teach in an area where they're abundant? The National Wildlife Federation sponsors Frogwatch USA, and I bet it's a lot of fun for adults to get involved in too!


14. Watch Some Movies
    Reach out and pick up a couple of the latest and greatest videos about the environment to use in the classroom. Discovery Channel's Planet Earth series is incredible, beautiful, and inspiring while the Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth has been shown in schools around the world. As a great alternative (or compliment) to that film, you could pick up a copy of the HBO Documentary Too Hot Not To Handle. It's briefer, though highly effective at conveying the negative consequences of global warming for humanity, and therefore may be a better fit for the classroom. Have students make their own skit or video instead.


15. Applaud Your Student Leaders
    Have students who are making a tremendous difference protecting the environment? Nominate them for one of Action for Nature's Young Eco-Hero Awards. Designated yearly, they recognize youth who are making a difference. Or, create your own school awards.

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