by editor | Jul 17, 2014 | STEM
2014 E3 Green Apple Award Winners
Using Links as Labs: First Green Connects Kids, Classrooms and Golf Courses
Glenwood Golf Course Superintendent Steve Kealy helps students measure water flow of a stream running through the course as part of the First Green Environmental Education Program.
As the United States seeks to meet the rising need for graduates with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) degrees, First Green is filling the gap with its innovative program of using golf courses as learning labs. First Green coordinates outdoor STEM “learning labs” at golf courses that allow students to perform hands-on experiments and tests, all within the focus of their schools’ environmental science and/or environmental horticulture curricula. In these outdoor “labs” students test water quality, collect soil samples, identify plants, do math activities and work with local issues such as stream-bed or owl-nest restoration.
Superintendent Steve Kealy helps student find macroinvertebrates in leaf litter from the golf course.
Many of the field trips involve community organizations. In Bellevue, Wash., the city’s Stream Team often has a learning station at Glendale Country Club’s field trips and engages students in identifying macro-invertebrates (bugs) from the Glendale pond. In addition, a Puget Sound area group, Nature Vision, provides a salmon life cycle lab.
A 501(c)(3) tax-exempt foundation, First Green was founded in 1997 and is based in Bellevue, Wash. Over 15,000 students have been on First Green field trips. Each field trip reaches an estimated 230 people with environmental and golf messages (due to students sharing with friends and families and teachers sharing with colleagues. First Green has replicated the program across Washington and into other states – Oregon, California, New Jersey, New York, Utah, Colorado, and just launched a program in Western Canada in May 2014.
Support
First Green receives ongoing support from the Washington State Golf Association, Pacific Northwest Golf Association, golf clubs and individual donors.
In addition, First Green was awarded STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) grants of $155,750 and $100,000 by the United States Golf Association (USGA) for 2014 and 2013. The grants are funded by the USGA’s partnership with Chevron, designed to encourage students in science, technology, engineering and math disciplines (STEM) through the world of golf.
Awards
First Green was awarded a 2014 E3 Washington Green Apple Award for Business Excellence. Steve Kealy, Golf Course Superintendent and First Green Board member, accepted the award at a ceremony on June 26, 2014.
For More Information
For more information about First Green, visit www.thefirstgreen.org or call 425/746-0809. The media contacts are Cathy Relyea, email cathyrelyea@thefirstgreen.org or call 425/373-9915; and Jeff Shelley, email jeffs@cybergolf.com or call 206/522-6981.
by editor | Dec 10, 2013 | K-12 Classroom Resources, STEM
1. Across the Spectrum: Resources for Environmental Educators
This downloadable collection of resources, perspectives, and examples will help nonformal environmental educators learn more about the field of EE, access resources, and gain skills to improve their practice and, over time, build a community of practitioners to advance the field. The document covers the foundations of EE, strategies, trends, and tools.
http://www.naaee.net/sites/default/files/publications/eebook/EEebook_download.pdf
2. Christopher Columbus Awards
The Christopher Columbus Awards for Middle School Students is a community-based STEM program. Students work in teams of three to four, with an adult coach, to identify a problem in their community and apply the scientific method to create an innovative solution to that problem. The deadline for submission is February 3, 2014.
http://www.christophercolumbusawards.com/
3. Green Living Project Student Film Project
Green Living Project’s Student Film Project is a filmmaking competition that encourages students, from middle school through college, to produce a short film telling a compelling story about a local or global sustainability-related project. The deadline for submission is January 17, 2014.
http://glpfilms.com/education/student-film-project/
4. Education and the Environment
This newly published book by Gerald Lieberman (Harvard Education Press 2013) provides an innovative guide to creating and implementing effective environmental education that combines standards-based lessons in language arts, math, history, and science with community investigations and service learning projects. By connecting academic content with local investigatons, Lieberman shows how environmental study becomes an engaging, thought-provoking context for learning multiple subjects. Look for a full review soon in CLEARING.
http://hepg.org/hep/book/198/EducationAndTheEnvironment
5. Climate Stewards Education Project – Online
NOAA’s Climate Stewards Education Project provides formal and informal educators working with elementary through university students with sustained professional development, collaborative tools, and support to build a climate-literate public that is actively engaged in climate stewardship. Participants are eligible for a variety of funding resources. Hurry – the deadline for application is December 13, 2013.
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/climate-stewards/
by editor | Apr 4, 2013 | Service learning, STEM
By Lee Sherman
In Brief
Whether identifying fish or monitoring water quality, students combine education with service through OSU’s Oregon Natural Resources Education Program. Through partnerships with local watershed councils and other agencies, students are making a difference.
Lifelong stewardship can begin as simply as a school project at a local stream.
That’s what happened when Philomath High School student Colby Davidson conducted a fish study for his senior thesis. An average student who wasn’t accustomed to accolades, he was as surprised as his teachers when he discovered six native species previously unknown in Newton Creek – and then won a national conservation award from the National Wildlife Federation. Now, three years later, he remains vigilant and active in local watershed issues.
Stories like this drive and inspire OSU’s Oregon Natural Resources Education Program (ONREP). Based in the College of Forestry, the Extension program’s mission statement – “to prepare educators to inspire natural resources learning and experiences so that students make informed decisions, exhibit responsible behavior, and take constructive action for Oregon’s natural resources” – captures its community-service thrust.
Building Skills
Through ONREP’s Teachers as Researchers project, kids get initiated to service learning with a foundation in rigorous classroom instruction. “Authentic field investigations start with skill-building, such as graphing pollution data or identifying Northwest invertebrates,” notes ONREP Director Susan Sahnow.
It then spills across local landscapes as teachers lead students into woodlands and riparian zones to study the natural resources that define the places they call home.
Finally, by forging partnerships with local watershed councils and other agencies, teachers and students embark on research-based projects that enhance their neighborhoods, forests and watersheds in tangible ways.
The key message for students is, “If we don’t take care of our stream, who’s going to do it?” says teacher and ONREP participant Jeff Mitchell. “They learn to care about their own community by doing meaningful community service.”
Lee Sherman is a writer for the Oregon State University Extension Service. This article was reprinted from the OSU website at http://oregonstate.edu/leadership/presidentsreport/2009/fall/discovery-leads-service
by editor | Jul 8, 2009 | Environmental Literacy, Outstanding Programs in EE, Place-based Education, Schoolyard Classroom, STEM, Sustainability, Teaching Science
by Mike Weilbacher
With the new wave of interest in the environment, will we finally give students the tools they need to become environmentally literate citizens?
In just a few weeks, high school seniors all around the United States will walk proudly across stages, hoisting their diplomas as they graduate from formal K–12 education. As their teachers, we’ll look on with some wistfulness, for the world into which they are graduating—one of spiraling financial crises coupled with huge international challenges—is vastly different from the one in which they started their senior year only 10 months ago.
But wait, it gets worse. If you place your finger on the pulse of the planet, this is what you’ll discover: global surface temperatures rising, glaciers melting, oceans warming, sea levels rising, rain forests burning, coral reefs dying, old-growth forests disappearing, deserts spreading, the world’s population increasing, and species vanishing at the highest rates since the extinction of the dinosaurs.
In short, the ecology that underpins our economy is also collapsing. And the solutions to this challenge elude not only most of our graduates, but also us—their teachers, administrators, and parents.
Will our graduates be ready for these new realities? Will they confidently stride into this world as college students, workers, voters, consumers—in short, as competent, caring adults capable of making good decisions on the pressing issues of the day?
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