This edition includes information concerning the 16th Annual Green Schools Event, Summer camp opportunities, and recordings highlighting educational opportunities for schools to improve their infrastructure and environmental education programming. Be sure to mark your calendars for the upcoming events! | |
Missouri Gateway Green Building Council’s 16th Annual Green Schools Event
May 3 | 5:30-7:30 PM
This event highlights the Green Schools Quest, a project-based challenge to K-12 schools to implement a sustainability project over 6 months with the help of a Green Mentor. The 50+ school/mentor teams participating this year will be able to present their projects while the winners of the Green Schools Quest are announced. Attendees will find out how they can participate in the 2023-2024 Green Schools Quest, as schools or mentors.
Register Here!
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Scholarships Available for 2023 Sustainability Institute for Educators
June 20- 22 | 8:30 AM - 4 PM (daily)
The organizers for the 2023 Sustainability Institute for Educators are offering scholarships for educators and administrators. Preference for scholarships will be given, but not limited to Schools with 75% free and reduced lunches, Schools/Districts sending multiple participants, Schools participating in the Green Schools Quest, and participants agreeing to attend three days of the conference. For a scholarship application, please complete this form and contact Kat Golden at [email protected] PRIOR to registering for the conference.
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Resources & Opportunities | |
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Jackling Introduction to Engineering Summer Camps
Missouri S&T hosts 3 different sessions of Jackling Introduction to Engineering that will present a variety of engineering fields with demonstrations and activities related to each discipline. There will be options to choose from a suite of activities each afternoon that will include interactive workshops ranging from software development and aerospace testing to the process of product development and testing exploration of state-of-the-art engineering materials breakthroughs.
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STL Zoo Summer Camps
The Saint Louis Zoo takes great pride in its Camp tradition. Zoo Camp programs are designed using best practices in environmental education, to be developmentally appropriate and fun, and are led by trained educators. Full and partial scholarships are also available to children interested in learning about the animal world.
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Living Schoolyards Act Lecture Series
Green Schoolyards America hosts a free webinar series on the wide-ranging benefits of the Living Schoolyards Act. In each session experts from a variety of disciplines will highlight a group of benefits of living in schoolyards — and of this legislation when enacted — to children and communities across the nation. The sessions will provide information, resources, and ideas, and will help build a movement to pass this crucial legislation.
Register Here
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Hosted by the Center for Green Schools, hear key findings from the Center’s newest white paper about different state-level and student-led policies created to influence climate change instruction in the classroom, as well as stories from our state-focused panelists showcasing student-led advocacy efforts happening in Massachusetts and innovative climate programming implementation on the ground.
View Here
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Hear directly from three different school district leaders about their recent innovations in bin design, construction, and placement, including students who are building their own receptacles to hallway recycling programs that are helping to maintain one district’s classroom eating program to unique systems for collecting valuable items such as milk carton material.
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HVAC Choices for Student Health and Learning
RMI and UndauntedK12’s new report “HVAC Choices for Student Health and Learning: What Policymakers, School Leaders, and Advocates Need to Know '' makes the case for adopting all-electric, high-performance HVAC systems in new and existing schools. These modern systems – most often featuring electric heat pump technology as a centerpiece – will best support student health, comfort, and learning, lower energy costs, and minimize climate pollution.
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April 4 | 8:30 AM -9:30 AM
New or existing, you will save when you tune up your buildings and solve problems with commissioning in your toolbox. Do you own or operate buildings? Would you like to implement more energy efficiency and high-performance building strategies? Join the Building Energy Exchange-St. Louis (BE-Ex STL) at their 2023 Owner/Operator series for commercial buildings.
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April 8 | Times vary
Create an account to join this annual event of volunteers coming together to help clean up the rivers and creeks within the Lower Missouri River watershed. All clean-up opportunities have a site supervisor present to provide volunteers with supplies, sign in participants, and lead them through the clean-up of the chosen site. Be a helping hand in removing tons of trash to create a better habitat for wildlife and protect the waterways from pollution so that everyone can enjoy the benefit of clean water!
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In this session, there will be a focus on policy wins and strengths in the region, as well as practical applications and next steps for participants regarding climate change and health in the Midwest. Additionally, this session will review some of the primary environmental justice concerns that arise in the Midwest region. Participants will be given the opportunity to reflect upon and discuss how these themes may be applied within education and community engagement practices. | |
Experience techniques for presenting hands-on activities aligned to both MO Learning and Environmental Education Standards. participants understand how to plan excellent EE experiences for K-5 learners, and how these experiences can be aligned with the Missouri Learning Standards. Participants will receive a copy of the NAAEE K-12 Guidelines for Excellence book. If attending, please bring a refillable water bottle, and wear comfy clothes indoors and out. | |
Meet our Newest VISTA Member | |
Porscha Hayes
Porscha is a St. Louis native and a recent graduate of Washington University. She attended and graduated from Washington University, where she studied Classics – Ancient Greek and Roman History and Language – and remained motivated by my early wish to be a lexicographer, a person who compiles lists of new words for dictionaries. Her interests include reading, writing, listening to music and foraging. Porscha has two fur babies, a cat and a dog, that she loves very much. During her year of service, Porscha hopes to help more schools find their green and initiate more community waste cleanups.
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Do you have a Green Schools Moment you'd like to share?
We want to hear from you! Please drop us a line to share a recent story (big or small!) about green activities taking place in your school community so that we might help elevate the good work you are doing through our communication channels.
Share Your Story
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Missouri Green Schools is a joint program of the Missouri Environmental Education Association and the Missouri Gateway Green Building Council. |
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