I work at a school, I would like good ideas regarding recyling and environmental.?

Question

It would be good to involve students in projects,training in recycling, and caring for the environment.

Answer 1

Wormery - good for all ages.

Answer 2

I think the first (easiest) thing you could do would be to start a freecycle campaign..It was after all started as a global initiative to recycle and stop overflow into our landfills. Tell all your students about freecycle and its intentions and send home paperwork to the parents as such. I think there are requirements depending on your grade level in TAKS specific to landfills. Have a freecycle rummage for your district.

Use recycle city, its a great way to also intergrate technology in to your lesson - EPA -  http://www.epa.gov/recyclecity/

You could very easily do it over solar energy or I just did a very successful lesson over oil spills, I would say it could be used from third grade up and possibly lower with modifications.

Every government agency is required by law to provide educators with teaching supplements. Many of them will send you materials free.

Also you can start a recycle America campaign for your school if there is not already one in place.

They could do a unit on cleaning up a local water source and take a field trip. There are many websources avaliable to choose from on recycling

If your school has "brain pop" there is many resources on there.

If you need more help drop me a line with your specific grade level and I will do all I can     [e-mail] (MSU 4-8 Science Dec 08)

Answer 3

I found a simple activity to try with my students this year (I think I got it from http://www.earthday.org).  Give each student a plastic grocery bag to carry around with them during the school day.  Anytime they go to throw something away, they're to put their trash in the bag instead.  It's like they're having a day with no trash.  At the end of the day, they examine the contents of their bags and discuss ways they can reduce the amount of trash they contribute.  Repeat the activity the following day and compare the results.  Hopefully your students will have found ways to reuse and reduce their waste.  

After discussing Earth Day with my students last week, I asked them to share what they did for Earth Day (if anything).  My big thing with my students is that they have to be the change they want to see in the world, and that "waiting on the world to change" won't yield any real results.  I was really excited when my students told me about the various things they did over the weekend.  One student started a recycling club in her neighborhood and picked up beer bottles & cans.  Another student picked up trash along the road with a church group.  My favorite response was from a student who was amazed at how everything she and her family did was the opposite of what should be done for conservation.  Over the weekend she made a conscious decision to take a shorter shower and turn off all the lights and electronics that weren't being used.  I LOVE the fact that she was able to make a few simple changes in her own life.  THAT'S the kind of stuff I want my students to take away from Earth Day activities.

Answer 4

What level of school? Elementary? Middle? High?

Maybe you can have guest speakers that are environmentalist or work in recycling and come and talk with the kids.  Also, you can have those recycling bins for paper and plastic around the schools for children to use.

You can try to incorporate a "environmental studies" program to be part of the school curriculum. Maybe have educational videos on the facts of global warming, pollution, etc and how we can help stop or reduce it.

Also, I dont know where you are located, but if there are parks or National Parks around, you can take the kids on a field trip there and let them physically be around nature. Educate them about their surroundings. I'm sure some will find a greater appreciation for nature.

There are lots of ways to get kids involve in taking care of our planet. Good luck with it

Answer 5

Does your school have a recycling program? If not you can take up a collection and commit yourself to delivering the recyclable materials to your local transfer station. As a child I participated in local lake clean-ups. We would walk around the lake and bag all the trash that we found. We were always awed by how much litter was son the ground. Another project you could do would be holding a fundraiser so that the students can "adopt" wildlife. I am posting a couple of links for you. Good luck.

Answer 6

a simple way forward for any ages is to set up an environmental club runnning in lunchtime and use the pupils who attend as a core group to spread the word to other pupils and teachers. this then means that whatever you plan to look at with the children can be fed back to the rest of the school.

it is easy to start with a growing project and great because they will have something to take home after a few weeks as well as learning about the life cycles of seeds.

recycling/rubbish projects are also very quick at showing children how much waste we produce and what is and isn't recycleble/reusable.

Answer 7

Go to www.bookrescue.org --- This is the website for an organization that's all about the environment and schools.

If you are in DuPage County (western chicago suburbs) they can come do do a program at your school. There are too many ideas --

teacher training, newsletter to subscribe to, "rescue" (i.e. reuse before recycle) projects for text books, crayons, school supplies, gym shoes, cell phones, etc. There's also a yahoo group called ecoleaders.

Answer 8

As the others are saying, set up a recycle container.  Re-use paper.  And if you want to help the ENTIRE school.  GOGREEN with the cleaners, use SHAKLEE.  (as seen on OPRAH ) For more info on these INCREDIBLE cleaners and how they can save you money (one cleaner does MOST !) contact me or goto: www.play4work.com