National Energy Education and Development project
Welcome to the back-to-school teacher edition of the Powerful Choices e-newsletter! Our team is geared up and ready to embark on another exciting adventure in the schools of the greater Puget Sound region. We hope you had a great summer! Here are some highlights of our summer:
- Clearing invasive species from the Cedar River watershed
- A natural history/climate "disruption" teacher workshop on Ross Lake
- Weekends working PSE's "Rock the Bulb" CFL lighting campaign
- Learning about water toxicity from a scientist
- And even "solar baking" of cookies on the dashboard of a car during August's record-breaking heat wave! (pictured above, facilitator Lynne Dial.)
Although it's always difficult to accept that the days are getting shorter and the school year is just getting started, we hope to make the transition back to school easier with some inspiration for action. Just like every new calendar year brings promise for new beginnings, we hope that the new school year serves as a catalyst for positive change!
The theme of this fall issue is INSPIRATION; we are chronicling people, programs, activities, and campaigns that inspire us. As the school year progresses, we welcome submissions from students! Share artwork, essays, poems, films, Powerful Choices pledges, or anything else that shows how you are making powerful choices in your everyday lives! Share your inspiration with us by submitting your work to: powerfulchoices@pse.com. We look forward to visiting your classroom soon!
Sincerely,
Powerful Choices Staff
We are excited to announce that PSE's Powerful Choices for the Environment team is helping to launch ITSCOOL, an innovative fundraising program with a service learning component. Youth raise funds for their organization through the sale of CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light) bulbs while spreading the word about climate change.
ITSCOOL provides curriculum and fundraising materials--including multimedia presentations, flyers, staff support, and CFLs--to help students understand climate change, how we impact the planet, and ways to diminish our impacts--all while raising funds for your organization!
We are seeking interested parties immediately for the fall and spring campaigns. If you--or someone else you know--would like to learn more about the program, please contact us! We're happy to provide more information.
Please contact Jessica Aronson at jessica.aronson@pse.com or Andy Varyu at founder@itscool.org for further details. We look forward to hearing from you!
This fall, a series of free teacher workshops will be conducted to introduce teachers to the Cool School Challenge and to show how it can be used to engage students in strategies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions at your school.
Continuing education units (CEUs) will be provided at most workshops. Dates and locations for fall 2009:
- October 17, 2009 | Padilla Bay, Mount Vernon
- November 7, 2009 | Wild Horse Wind Farm, Vantage
- December 5, 2009 | Bainbridge Island School District, Bainbridge Island
- December 12, 2009 | Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Tacoma
Check coolschoolchallenge.org/workshop-schedule.aspx as details for these workshops are finalized, or e-mail info@coolschoolchallenge.org to add your name to our e-distribution list and receive electronic notification of updates.
Registration is now open for both public and private K-12 schools across Washington state to participate in the new Washington Green Schools program
This voluntary program provides on-line resources and tools that students, teachers, and staff can use to assess and take actions to 'green up' school campuses and operations. The program emphasizes five environmental categories:
- Energy Efficiency
- Recycling and Waste Reduction
- Toxics reduction and Indoor Air Quality
- Transportation and Outdoor Air Quality
- Water Quality and Conservation
School participation can lead to environmental and economic benefits such as reduced garbage and increased recycling rates, healthier indoor and outdoor air quality, lower utility costs, and less waste. In addition, students gain valuable leadership and community service skills as well as hands-on environmental education.
Free trainings are scheduled this fall for teachers, administrators, resource conservation managers, parent volunteers, and other interested individuals to provide step-by-step guidance on forming a school "green team." For more information, contact: info@wagreenschools.org.
Washington Green Schools is a collaborative partnership of agencies and organizations, grant-funded by the Washington State Department of Ecology. Sign up now at wagreenschools.org.
Let's face it -- everybody likes a holiday. With that in mind, mark your calendars for October 24, 2009: International Day of Climate Action. "350" represents the amount of carbon in the atmosphere, in parts per million (ppm), that prominent climatologist James Hansen suggests we need to attain in order to have a planet "similar to the one on which civilization developed and to which life on earth is adapted." Currently, the atmospheric carbon concentration is 387ppm. The world can get back to 350ppm -- with your help.
October 24 marks the day when people around the world will take actions to make this important number visible to everyone. Visit 350.org to find out what actions are being organized in your community. Or, if you would like to organize an action in your own community, spread the word from the website. Join the world on October 24 for the largest worldwide grassroots action on climate change, ever!
Nasty to Nice: Composting in your school with Marcia Rutan, Seattle Public Utilities
Composting food waste is a great way to limit the amount of garbage your school sends to the local landfill. There are many other benefits to composting as well, including greenhouse gas reduction and increased soil health. In order to understand how composting works, and to gather tips to make it easier for you to start a composting program at your school, the Powerful Choices team interviewed Marcia Rutan, recycling program coordinator at Seattle Public Utilities.
How does composting work?
Food, along with other organics, naturally breaks down into an earthy material full of microbial activity called compost. Air and some moisture help this process. When piled into a “heap” with a good mixed “feedstock” of carbon (like leaves) and nitrogen (like food or grass), the material heats up, which speeds up the action. In very large heaps, such as at a facility, the heat can even kill pathogens and weed seeds. After the compost matures and cools it is ready to be applied to a garden or landscape where it provides excellent nutrients for the soil and can largely replace most fertilizers. Plants grown in a naturally healthy soil, without dependence on chemicals, are often more resistant to diseases and pests. Compost can also help reduce water needs by mulching the soil.
What types of things can be included as food waste?
In backyard composting systems you can include all food scraps except for meat and dairy, which attract pests. In curbside food waste collection programs, accepted items depend on each city or county’s program. Some places accept meat and dairy and some do not, along with all other food scraps. Most programs accept food-soiled paper such as greasy pizza boxes or kitchen paper towels. You need to check with your local agency or hauler for a list of what is accepted where you live.
What are the benefits to food waste composting or collection at school?
Some schools compost on site, and many schools have food waste collection programs where the waste is put into carts and taken away for composting at a facility. Either method keeps food from going to the landfill. At the landfill food scraps break down and emit methane, a greenhouse gas that is 22 times more potent than CO2. Through compost and collection, food waste instead is recycled into compost, a valuable resource that can help restore or maintain vital soil health. In addition, schools may be able to downsize their garbage containers which can save money, as well as educate students regarding cycles, food systems, sustainability, and other curriculum-related topics.
What happens to food waste once it is collected in the region?
This varies according to region. In the Seattle area, the food waste goes to the permitted Cedar Grove Composting facility. In other areas there are other permitted facilities. At the facilities they usually go through processes that include grinding, being piled into heaps or windrows, aeration, sitting and heating up, cooling down, screening, and being bagged or placed in bulk piles for sale. In addition, they are picked over for materials that do not belong in compost such as glass, plastic bags, shovels, gardening gloves, etc.
Where does it go?
Facilities usually sell compost-based products for use on gardens and landscapes.
How can students become involved in composting at school?
Students can help monitor lunchroom stations, promote the program, educate others, and learn more about the compost and food cycles. On-site composting programs offer similar opportunities but may include other steps. Both options may include the chance to try out compost on a school garden and grow food, flowers, or other plants.
What are the major “selling points” to use in order to get school administrators on board with starting a composting program at a school?
Education, environmental good, and community service may all be helpful “selling points.” Of course administrators will want to know that the program will not be a mess, and that costs will be controlled. There are already many established and successful school food waste collection and composting programs, such as Lawton Elementary in Seattle. Student and teacher enthusiasm can be a big selling factor. If these are tied to enhancing education, all the better!
What are common barriers that people face when attempting to start a school composting program?
School administrators and facilities or lunchroom staff may be concerned about costs, labor issues, and sustainability of the program. A teacher or parent advisor will be needed as well as a steady pool of student helpers. There may be startup costs. Facilities staff may need assurance that their jobs will not get harder.
How can one overcome these barriers?
Careful planning is always a good first step. Involve your stakeholders from facilities, the lunchroom, the administration, the local compost facility or hauler, students etc. from the start. Presenting a proposal and plan to the administrators or School Board may be useful. Find out from a local agency or hauling company if there is a way to reduce garbage costs and take into account all start up costs for a full analysis. Create a system that is not dependent on one person but includes a broader base of people. Build enthusiasm among staff and students through contests, a lunchroom graph of reducing waste, providing environmental facts, etc. Make sure signage is clear and durable within the school community before starting the program.
Are there any programs to get a school started with composting?
The Department of Ecology’s Terry Husseman Sustainability Awards program provides startup grants for projects. Local compost facilities and solid waste agencies may be able to provide technical assistance or grants, as well as educational materials. The new Washington Green Schools program (wagreenschools.org) recognizes startup of school food waste composting or collection as a step toward certification and includes useful resources and information on the website. In Seattle, Peter Hubbard, a third grade teacher at Lawton Elementary, started food waste collection at his school on his own initiative and now 26 schools are on board, on their own initiative too! He has a video of participating students that has been useful as a startup tool. Provide a link to the video? There may be local organizations of garden/composting enthusiasts such as Tilth, Master Recycler Composters, or Master Gardeners who may be able to provide volunteer support.
What ways can a composting program become incorporated into a school’s curriculum?
Composting food can be included as an example of a natural cycle and an example of biological activity including a study of worms and insects. Horticultural programs or classrooms may wish to conduct garden experiments (with and without compost). Climate change and food/soil security can be discussion points for older students in social studies as well as the effects of garbage and waste on natural resources. Math can be employed for translating gallons of waste collected to tons of material into tons of compost, as well as avoided greenhouse gases. There are wonderful opportunities for promotional planning and implementation such as posters, skits, artwork, poems, and stories which ensures engaging a variety of learning styles. Project experience and meeting community service requirements may also satisfy aspects of a school’s curriculum.
Food waste is a significant portion of the remaining waste going to the landfill from both home and school. By integrating food waste composting or collection at school, we reduce garbage and ensure that students are better prepared to be stewards for their own future world when resources must be even more conscientiously respected to ensure planetary health. With growing public interest in the environment, climate change, food/soil security, and health, and the greater availability of compost facilities and equipment, there has never been a better time to launch a food waste composting or collection program at school. We are very fortunate.
Marcia Rutan has worked in local government with recycling, composting and school programs for over 19 years. She currently works for the City of Seattle as a recycling program manager and co-leads the Washington Green Schools program. She can be reached at Marcia.rutan@seattle.gov or 206-684-3976.
Could you talk about Sakai's Solar panels and your role in acquiring these as well as your plans to use them in your curriculum?
Our school wrote a $20,000 grant to PSE for an 1,100 watt system of solar panels. At the same time we felt if we could get this grant we could form a partnership with our community and raise enough money to purchase another 4,000 watts. Todd Erler, a fifth grade teacher in our school helped form a local community foundation called Community Energy Solutions. Through his planning and outreach Community Energy Solutions raised another $30,000, enough to install a 5.1 kWh system installed last Fall on the roof of our school.
I wrote and received another community grant that would let us build a bicycle generator system for producing power with students pedaling in our main hall. This power would then operate a moving kinetic sculpture featuring Salmon built with a partnership of local artists and students. This system will be used to help excite students about power generation and how it is measured in watts and killowatt-hours. The sculpture was completed last spring and the bicycle/generator will be put together this fall.
Our solar panel output is regularly reported on our morning TV broadcast in the morning along with how many total pounds of CO2 the panels have saved from needing to be produced from power plants. Our library hosts a special kiosk that shows a site where all kinds of cumulative facts about the panels can be viewed. We have also challenged our staff to have a “power down” day to see how we can reduce our building power consumption with turning off unnecessary lighting and technology. Our district provided us with a power usage profile for several days before, during and after that event. The graphs showed we could conserve 40% with behavior changes in the classrooms. We are now going to use this year to see what behavior changes teachers can sustain effectively over the long run without affecting the quality of teaching. Our district will monitor our building power use and provide feedback showing any changes from past use. We plan to use the PSE Cool School Challenge Energy Audit in 5th grade to make students aware of how much power our school uses and where conservation may help reduce power load.
Are you still raising Salmon in your classroom? Can you highlight the learning opportunities for students involved in this program?
We hatch about 2,000 chum eggs every year in a large tank outside our library. The eggs come from Dog Creek Hatchery in Indianola. All students follow the progress of the young chum through our morning TV broadcasts. In April, each class goes down to the salmon stream behind our school and each student releases two salmon. Around this celebration students write Haiku and other forms of poetry and stories that showcase the journey these salmon are about the have and the food chains they support. I managed an Eagle Scout project several years ago to build a site sensitive observation area near the stream where students could sit and make observations or record data about the stream without causing erosion near the stream side.
We also teach all students about how our school site mitigates storm water run off so the stream remains a viable salmon stream. Our school site has three cell detention ponds for water from roof and parking lots so fine sediments can settle out, wetland plants and trees to enhance biodiversity in the ponds and keep out geese and keep water cool, an oil separator, and bio swales to absorb heavy metals before water returns to stream. Water passes through rock gabions to slow the water as it enters the stream to reduce erosion.
Because of the depth of our building and the slope it sits on we have a deep intercept trench that collects the groundwater flowing near the base of our school. It is diverted to level spreaders below our school toward the stream and injected back into the ground so this water remains part of the normal ground water. In the past this water would be diverted to surface ponds that would remove it from the water table and affect the stream level.
Our play field is a hydroponic system made of sand. Slow release fertilizer is used to feed the grass. Excess water is collected by a drainage system under the fields and put back into the ground in a system called level spreaders. This nutrient-rich water feeds a forest of trees in a buffer zone before the water can reach the stream. In this way, the tree roots will absorb any excess fertilizer before the water can enter the stream.
We have developed a community outreach/partnership regarding storm water runoff and the health of Puget Sound. All our 6th grade students make 10 door hangars of information on how home owners can reduce storm water run off or reduce the contamination of storm water. They canvas the community and place them on doors and the brochure requests home owners to take a survey online regarding their awareness of storm water and how it affects our Puget Sound.
You recently attended the NEED conference. How are you going to incorporate what you saw or learned into your school or classroom?
Energy is a common thread of everything done in a science classroom. This conference helped me see how I should teach about the forms of energy, Potential and Kinetic, and the various kinds of energy in each category. I plan to do this early in the school year so that I can loop students back to these principles in every unit and have students become skilled at diagramming the flow of energy used in key labs throughout the year. This is a big picture way of thinking about energy as a common strand in life, physical, and earth sciences. My favorite learning activities involved students building wind turbine models in groups of four where they can experiment with the turbine blade designs and how that can affect the power output. It is a fabulous hands-on way to review the scientific method while building knowledge about wind power technology.
The best single simulation game we learned about is one called “Your Carbon Journey.” Each student becomes a random molecule of organic or inorganic carbon. Students draw cards and the number determines if they move and where to. They will see how carbon can move from the Land Biosphere (soil, plants, animals) to Atmosphere to Hydrosphere (marine plants, animals). Some of these carbon reservoirs are long lasting and others are short. Student movement around the room showcases this movement and cycling of carbon in a fun way.
Can you say what Powerful Choices has meant to you and how it impacts your students each year?
As a teacher I love the Powerful Choices program. The staff comes with a very motivating and engaging curriculum. It makes the students think about their actions on the world they live in. I can use Powerful Choices to reinforce the power students have as consumers of products and resources to make a difference in their environment. Part of our jobs as teachers is to add to their knowledge but also to empower them to think critically and make choices based on factual information that will help conserve valuable resources.
The program is engaging and fun for the students while really making them see how their purchasing choices, use of daily common resources such as water or electricity and choice of transportation can affect the overall environment. The skilled staff that comes and teaches this curriculum are extremely effective at making students think about where our products and resources come from. Whether water, power generation, transportation, or consumer products, their games and activities engage students to make connections between the use of resources and how their present and future choices can make them better stewards of the environment. This four-day program puts front and center how their choices really can and do affect the environment they live in.
Josh Mitchell has been a facilitator since April of 2005. While he was working on his education degree at Iowa's Luther College, he began his understanding of how human interactions have impacts upon their local ecosystems. As a partner in a tree farm, he planted over 20,000 trees, re-established 100 acres of native prairie and natural wetland, and managed a small hobby farm of goats, sheep, donkeys, horses, a small orchard, and many organic gardens. After four years of school and his tree farm venture, Josh began teaching high school special education and worked as an assistant wrestling coach at West Liberty High School in Iowa. During the summers, he worked for the University of Iowa's Wildlife camps, extending his knowledge and passion for nature to fifth-grade students.
Since moving to Seattle in 2003, Josh and his dog Else have embraced all that the Northwest has to offer. You may find them out climbing, biking, fly-fishing or rambling through the woods to escape the city for a night (or a week). Josh's latest adventure was riding his bike along the Pacific coast from Astoria, Ore., to Crescent City, Calif. (without dog, sadly).
The National Energy Education and Development Project (NEED) provides a great deal of resources that can be used to enrich some of the lessons taught during Powerful Choices. Classroom curriculum related to energy topics are offered for primary, intermediate, and secondary students of all levels. Some of our favorite lesson plans from NEED are listed below.
Transportation Fuels: The Future is Today is a series of cooperative learning activities in which secondary students evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of conventional and alternative transportation fuels for themselves and their communities.
http://www.need.org/needpdf/Future%20Is%20Today.pdf
Mission Possible: Energy Trade Offs challenges students to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of the energy sources used to generate electricity by developing energy plans for a fictitious country.
http://www.need.org/needpdf/Mission%20Possible.pdf
Many more curriculum guides can be found at
http://www.need.org/Guides-Subject.php.