Description
Educational campaigns were conducted in southern California elementary, middle, and high schools to engage students with local environmental issues. The project was focused on supplying resources for teams of elementary, middle, and high school students to identify and solve water issues in their areas. The campaign was coordinated by Grades of Green, a non-profit based in El Segundo, CA. Teams were located worldwide but heavily concentrated in the Southern California area. This an effective form of introducing environmental issues to young students because it allows them to take charge on an issue that matters to them and see the payoff of their work. The campaign was broken into four different phases where teams researched, found issues in their community, found solutions to those issues, and presented those solutions to community groups. The key indicator in the judging of each teams work was the gallons of water conserved and the engagement each team had with the community. It was found that there are thousands of gallons of water to be conserved by solutions created by campaign teams. In questionnaires sent to each team, a wide range of teams that spoke to the fact that these campaigns and issues are something that are not normally addressed in classes, specifically in public education. This project shows that there is a large need for more environmental education programs in elementary, middle, and high schools. Solutions to environmental issues can come from people of all ages as long as they are exposed to the topics.
International Environmental Education Programs and Their Scarcity in K-12 Schools
Educational campaigns were conducted in southern California elementary, middle, and high schools to engage students with local environmental issues. The project was focused on supplying resources for teams of elementary, middle, and high school students to identify and solve water issues in their areas. The campaign was coordinated by Grades of Green, a non-profit based in El Segundo, CA. Teams were located worldwide but heavily concentrated in the Southern California area. This an effective form of introducing environmental issues to young students because it allows them to take charge on an issue that matters to them and see the payoff of their work. The campaign was broken into four different phases where teams researched, found issues in their community, found solutions to those issues, and presented those solutions to community groups. The key indicator in the judging of each teams work was the gallons of water conserved and the engagement each team had with the community. It was found that there are thousands of gallons of water to be conserved by solutions created by campaign teams. In questionnaires sent to each team, a wide range of teams that spoke to the fact that these campaigns and issues are something that are not normally addressed in classes, specifically in public education. This project shows that there is a large need for more environmental education programs in elementary, middle, and high schools. Solutions to environmental issues can come from people of all ages as long as they are exposed to the topics.