Towards this end, I require my students (10-14yrs old) to perform four acts of environmental stewardship per year (one per quarter). You'd think this would be met by groans and complaints, but the truth is that most students are full of passion and idealism - they *want* to save the world, they're just not sure how! Which is why I've pulled together this continually-updated list of projects that are student friendly but that directly map to challenges that are facing our Earth today.
Please - if you have any suggestions of activities that I might add to the list, leave me a comment below. I'm hoping this blog post will prove genuinely useful to other teachers hoping to implement or grow the emphasis on environmental stewardship in their own classrooms.
Planting & Growing
- Build a bird or bat house
- Create a vertical garden
- Create a container garden
- Create an indoor window garden
- Plant a butterfly, bee, or bat garden
- Plant a vegetable, flower, spice, or medicine garden
- Build a small greenhouse so that you can continue to grow your own vegetables throughout the winter
- Plant a tree or bush (just make sure you pick an indigenous species!)
- Install a rain barrel
- Build/create a composting program
- Start composting
- Use tree/plant identification guides to positively identify 10+ plants in your yard or neighborhood. Then figure out which ones are native vs. non-native to Virginia
- Collect & remove invasive species
- Implement new landscaping techniques that will reduce either erosion, fertilizer use, or invasive species in your lawn
- Create seed balls (native seeds only!) and disperse them around your community
- Raise ladybugs (indigenous species) and set them lose in the community to eat bugs
- Raise chickens
- Raise bees
- Learn to identify local birds, and participate in a sponsored bird count project.
Water Quality & Conservation
- Create a rain garden
- Find an area where soil is eroding and entering the local watershed and implement a solution (erect a barrier, plant grass, etc.)
- Pick up litter so that it doesn't wash into the local watershed
- Begin taking 3-minute showers
- Calculate your family’s water footprint. (There are many water footprint calculators online that you can use.)
- Mark local storm drains with stickers that remind people not to use them as chemical dumps
- Acquire a lead water test kit and check the water at local public areas (libraries, schools, etc.) to make sure it is safe
- Monitor water quality in a local watershed (pond, stream, or lake)
Sustainability
- Reduce the amount of packaging that you accumulate when shopping by
- Buying products that are sold in recycleable containers
- Buying products that come in reusable packinging
- Using reusable shopping bags (including bags for produce)
- Refusing straws, lids and excess plastic packaging
- Brainstorm and implement strategies for reducing the amount of trash that your family produces
- Identify a common single-use plastic pollutant and take an action that will help reduce the production/use of that plastic
- Upcycle something that you would ordinarily throw in the trash
- Donate/freecycle reusable items instead of throwing them away
- Educate your community about what items are not recycleable
- Purchase previously owned goods vs. buying new
- Learn how to reduce the amount of junk mail you receive at home, and share this information with the community using a website, a brochure, or a newsletter.
- Come up with a plan to reduce food waste in your house (or at your school)
Putting the Breaks on Climate Change
- Conduct an energy audit of your school or classroom
- Eat more vegetarian meals
- Eat more locally grown produce
- Calculate your family’s carbon footprint
- Reduce your family’s car trips
- Reduce your family’s electricity use
- Figure out the cost of switching your house to solar (you don’t have to switch to solar! Just research it)
- Compare and contrast normal cars vs. hybrid cars vs. electric cars and figure out which one would make the most sense for your family.
- Switch something in your house to an alternative energy source that doesn’t create Co2 pollution
- Encourage members of your community to use natural vs. man-made fertilizers. (The production of man-made fertilizers is a major source of the greenhouse gas NO2.)
General Stewardship & Activism
- Join a local club or organization dedicated to making your community more environmentally friendly
- Organizations that plant trees and/or protect natural areas
- Organizations that promote green architecture & development
- Volunteer to help support an environmental stewardship project at a local park or nature center
- Attend an event that showcases local environmental initiatives
- Create flyers, posters or infographics to hang in your school, educating students about an environmental issues that concerns them
- Initiate a project that will make your school greener. For example:
- eliminate plastic bottles by installing water fountains that refill reusable water bottles
- Create a program that increases the number of students who bike to school (rather than getting dropped off by cars)
- Advocate to install solar energy at your school
- Clean up trash around your school
- Plant trees on school property
- Sponsor an athletic shoe recycling drive
- Write your Congressman and tell them how you want them to vote on environmental issues impacting your neighborhood, town, or state
- Become a citizen scientist - many websites offer opportunities for students to support ongoing scientific research by participating in bird counts, monitoring local water quality, logging local species, or other age-appropriate activities.
- Participate in a protest
- Conduct a fundraiser to raise money for an environmental issue that you are passionate about
