Dream in Green – 2017/18 Guidebook Activities

SEPTEMBER – WELCOME TO THE ACADEMY

  • Enroll in one of the programs
  • Attend the Professional Development Training
  • Create a Green Team
  • Take a Pledge to Green the School
  • Conduct a Water & Energy Survey of the School
  • Take Action and Monitor Savings
  • Involve Facilities Staff
  • Complete Deedly’s video activity

OCTOBER - ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND CONSERVATION

Green Schools Challenge

Elementary

  • Title: Energy scavenger hunt at school and home

MDC Pacing Guide Activities:

SC.3.P.10.1 Identify Forms of Energy

SC.4.P.10.1 Forms of Energy

Short Description: This fun activity will help students, their schools and their families save on energy costs. These students along with their schools/families can search for ways in which they are already saving energy and for ways in which they can save more energy.

  • Title: Renewable and non-renewable energy riddles

MDC Pacing Guide Activities:

SC.K.P.10.1 Sound

SC.4.P.10.2 Energy

SC.4.P.10.3 Sound

Short Description:Students will write riddles describing sources of renewable and nonrenewable energy. Students will give three clues to tell about the source of energy they chose. They will state if the energy is renewable and nonrenewable.

  • Title: Saving energy by planting a tree

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: SC.K.L.14.3 Characteristics of Plants

Short Description: Planting the right trees in the right places at home or at school conserves energy and reduces the energy bills, while helping to fight climate change. Properly placed trees save energy by providing summer shade, warmth, and windbreaks.

  • Title: Healthy Earth, Sick Earth Book

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: SC.1.E.6.3 Recognize Earth’s Fast and Slow Changes to Land

Short Description: This lesson uses the book Planet Earth Gets Well by Madeline Kaplan to introduce students to concepts related to climate change and properly caring for the Earth. Students will learn what they can do to help make the Earth “healthy” and what others are doing that is making the earth “sick.”

  • Title: Plum Landing Thank You, Trees

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: SC.K.L.14.2 Animal and Plant Portrayals

Short Description: Pick your favorite tree on your outdoor journey, draw it, and write it a thank-you letter! Tell it why it’s so special to you.

Secondary

  • Title: Energy Saving Tips Visual Campaign Activity (Proposed by BLUE Missions Group)

Short Description: Students will research energy-saving tips related to different categories (hot water usage, cooking, lighting etc.) and create visual campaigns to advocate for energy conservation.

  • Title: Hydroponic system in your classroom

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: M/J Comprehensive Science 3, Unit 4, VII, C. Conservation of Matter and Energy

Short Description: Hydroponics is applicable in many classrooms– from kindergarten to college. Plants tend to grow faster in hydroponic environments and students can learn several lessons related to the following subjects: Biology, Chemistry, History, Math/Business, Geography, Engineering/Physics.

  • Title: The Light Bulb Challenge

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: M/J Comprehensive Science 2, Unit 2, II, Heat Energy (multiple activities)

Short Description: Replace all bulbs in a classroom or the school if possible with CFL (compact fluorescent lamps). Student can even use GLG grants to purchase.

  • Title: Streaming “Before the Flood” Documentary

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: M/J Comprehensive Science 2, Unit 5, VIII, C. How Humans Impact the Earth

Short Description: Watch the environmental documentary “Before the Flood” or any other environmental educational film and organize a discussion about the importance of these materials.

  • Title: Energy efficiency and conservation flash mob

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: M/J Comprehensive Science 1, Unit 3, VII, C. Law of Conservation of Energy

Short Description: Explain the importance of energy efficiency and conservation and then organize a flash mob where everyone in the room participates and starts building a movement to further promote energy efficiency in and out of the classroom.

WE-LAB

  • Title: Water/Energy Nexus

MDC Pacing Guide Activities:

SC.2.P.10.1 Uses of Energy and Other Forms of Energy

SC.4.P.10.4 Uses of Energy

Short Description: The concept refers to the relationship between the water used for energy production, including both electricity and sources of fuel such as oil and natural gas, and the energy consumed to extract, purify, deliver, heat/cool, treat and dispose of water (and wastewater) sometimes referred to as the energy intensity. The idea will be for students to understand that all forms of energy production require some input of water.

  • Title: Light Pollution and it’s negative impacts

MDC Pacing Guide Activities:

SC.3.P.10.3 How Light Travels

SC.3.P.10.4 Reflection, Refraction and Absorption of Light

Short Description: “The introduction of artificial light probably represents the most drastic change human beings have made to their environment.” That is why it is so important for students to understand specific scenarios where humans have generative a negative impact due to light pollution

NOVEMBER - WASTE REDUCTION AND RECYCLING

Green Schools Challenge

Elementary

  • Title: A Recycled Gift for Children in Need

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: SC.2.L.17.2 Recognize and Explain that Habitats Must Provide Basic Needs

Short Description: Use recycled materials to create toys and/or trophies for disadvantaged or homeless children

  • Title: Rise Above Plastics in Your Neighborhood (Proposed by Surfrider Foundation Miami Chapter)

Short Description: By observing and documenting consumption and disposal, the Green team will rapidly learn about the large amount of plastic waste embedded in our daily lives at home, school and the workplace. Plastic bags and plastic bottles are highly destructive to the environment and end up in the food chain including what humans eat!

  • Title: Eco-friendly Board Game

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: SC.4.L.16.2 Plant and animal characteristics are affected by the environment

Short Description: Create an eco-friendly board game or have a recycling game/relay.These Recycle Games provide great exercise while teaching about the importance of recycling.

  • Title: Create a Recycled Supply

Short Description: Create eco prints, catalog necklace and/or recycled crayons. Use natural materials to create pattern or eco-friendly message to put around schools/community or turn them into a giant piece of tapestry

Secondary

  • Title: Vertical Gardens Workshop

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: Biology I, IV. A. Sustainability and environmental policy

Short Description: Createvertical gardens using recycled water bottles. Ex. Plant lettuce in each bottle and place it on a different spot at school in order to see where the lettuce grows best, and/or collected items and upcycle them into garden planters and furniture for outdoor garden space.

  • Title: Time to Start Composting at School

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: Biology I, IV. B. Costs and benefits of renewable and non-renewable resources

Short Description: Start composting at the school using lunch waste as the prime material.

  • Title: Cloth Bag Creation

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: Biology I, IV. A. Sustainability and environmental policy

Short Description: Create cloth bags and sell in front of grocery stores/educated customers.

WE-LAB

  • Title: Water Bottle Production Factory

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: Biology I, IV. A. Sustainability and environmental policy

Short Description: By doing this activity, discover how much water/energy you can save by eliminating bottles.

DECEMBER - WATER QUALITY & CONSERVATION

Green Schools Challenge

Elementary

  • Title: How Much Water Falls Here?
    MDC Pacing Guide Activities:

SC.2.P.8.6 Measure and Compare Volumes of Liquids

SC.2.E.7.3 Investigate, Observe, and Describe How Water Evaporates

SC.5.E.7.4 Forms of Precipitation AA

Short Description: By performing this activity, students will be able to calculate the area of the school parking lot, understand the differences in pervious and impervious surfaces, and determine the volume of water that falls on the school parking lot.

  • Title: Create an ocean habitat

Short Description: Build and ocean habitat by using water with blue food coloring, Swedish fish and sand. Place a feather to see mixture of oil and cocoa powder and discuss the important of keeping oceans clean

  • Title: Every Drop Counts

MDC Pacing Guide Activities:

SC.1.E.6.2 Water

SC.3.P.9.1 Water Changing States

Short Description: All Miami-Dade County elementary school students from kindergarten through fifth grade are invited to participate in the Annual Every Drop Counts Kids Poster Contest. The contest allows students to express the benefits of water conservation, receive a free t-shirt and win prizes! All entries must be postmarked no later than February 10, 2017.

  • Title: Field trip to the Florida Everglades

MDC Pacing Guide Activities:

SC.1.L.17.1 Plants and Animals Interact and Depend on Each Other and the Environment for Basic Needs

SC.4.E.6.3 Natural Resources

SC.4.E.6.6 Florida’s Natural Resources (AA)*

Short Description: Explore the Florida Everglades and learn the value of this ecosystem for the entire state and how crucial it is to preserve their water resources to meet basic needs.

Secondary

  • Title: Sea level on the rise

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: M/J Comprehensive Science 1, Unit 2, IV, B. Global Patterns that Effect Weather / C. Weather versus Climate

Short Description: Learn how South Florida is being and will be affected by sea level rise and its causes. Become a sea level rise in your community to make them aware and empower to make significant changes and thus reduce its impact.

  • Title: Too many nutrients

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: M/J Comprehensive Science 2, Unit 3, IV, A. Properties of Waves

Short Description: Through this activity, we are going to observe algae growth caused by excess fertilizer use and discuss how using too much fertilizer can be detrimental to aquatic life.

  • Title: From streets to streams

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: M/J Comprehensive Science 1, Unit 2, III, B. Water Cycle

Short Description: Through this activity, students will define the terms runoff, point and nonpoint source

Pollution and classify pollution sources as either point or nonpoint source.

  • Title: An irrigation system for your school garden

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: Biology I, XXV. L. Properties of Water

Short Description: Build an irrigation system for your school garden to make sure the watering needed is being taken care of. Why? Becauseif you do not have an irrigation system, this is going to be one of the more time consuming and time sensitive tasks in your school garden during the summer. Taking time up front to make your system as user friendly as possible will save you and your volunteers lots of time and

frustration in the long run.

  • Title: The Heart of a Watershed (Proposed by the Everglades Foundation)

Short Description: In small groups, students build a model landscape to illustrate the uniqueness of the Kissimmee-Lake Okeechobee-Everglades (K-O-E) watershed and use a model to demonstrate how alterations have affected it.

  • Title: Nonpoint vs point sources of pollution

Short Description: Classify several activities that we as Florida residents do very commonly in the water as either point or nonpoint source pollution.

WE-LAB

  • Title: Build an Aquifer

Short Description: Learn how aquifers are, how they work, and why they are important. Then build your own!

  • Title: Water Purifier

MDC Pacing Guide Activities:

SC.2.P.8.4 Observe and Describe Water as a Solid, Liquid, and Gas

SC.2.P.9.1 Investigate How Matter Can Change

Short Description: Try this homemade water purifier to see how suspended matter can be filtered from water. You may be surprised by how this science project on states of matter works.

JANUARY - ALTERNATIVE TRANSPORTATION

Green Schools Challenge

Elementary

  • Title: Demonstrating the greenhouse effect

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: SC.3.E.6.1 Radiant Energy from the Sun can Heat Objects

Short Description: Create a 3-D model to illustrate the greenhouse effect

  • Title: Bike Psych

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: SC.4.P.12.1 Objects in Motion

Short Description: In this lesson, students will focus on the benefits of bicycles as a form of sustainable transportation. After examining how much energy is used by the vehicles that typically transport us from one place to another, students learn about the way they can use their own pedal power to ease demand on fossil fuels and combat climate change. Students will map out safe bicycling routes to and from school to serve as a resource for the entire school community.

  • Title: Alternative Transportation Day/Week

Short Description: Host an alternative transportation day or week at the school

  • Title: Puff Mobile

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: SC.E.P.10.2 Energy’s Ability to Cause Motion and Create Change

Short Description: Create a puff mobile and learn about wind energy. Goal: to move a certain distance with the least amount of puffs.

Secondary

  • Title: Biomimicry: The Genius of Nature

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: M/J Comprehensive Science 1, Unit 6, XII, Structure and Function of Living Things (multiple activities)

Short Description: In this lesson, students are introduced to the cutting edge field of biomimicry, which is the practice of imitating nature in order to better human life. After learning about real-life examples of biomimicry in action, students choose an animal or ability from nature to develop and design their own sustainable transportation inventions.

  • Title: Create a Model Car

Short Description: Learn about hybrid engines and/or use LEGOS robotics to create a model car.

  • Title: The WalkingChallenge

Short Description: Use pedometers on phone, most steps in a week wins. You can even host a walking in their neighborhood.

  • Title: Miami and its alternative transportation

Short Description: Learn about the alternative transportation options in Miami (include routes, cost etc)

WE-LAB

  • Title: Travel without a car

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: M/J Comprehensive Science 2, Unit 7, XIII, C. Pollution

Short Description: Highlights all of the fun and active ways that students can travel without a car. Learn facts about exercise, greenhouse gases and the number of cars on the road in Canada. The engaging youth ambassadors will motivate students to become more active while reminding all of us that sometimes we depend too much on our vehicles!

  • Title: Let’s Ride Together (Elementary only)

Short Description: While bonding as a group, learn what causes traffic, what can be done to reduce traffic, what is the connection between transportation and air pollution, how do emissions from transportation affect me, what are the goals of public transportation, and how can public transportation help a community?

FEBRUARY - GREEN LIVING (Buildings & Careers)

Green Schools Challenge

Elementary

  • Title: Cleaning the Air

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: SC.2.E.7.4 Air and Wind

Short Description: Learn about/incorporate green plants in classrooms to purify and promote clean air inside:

  • Title: Greener Schools

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: SC.4.L.17.4 How Living Things Impact the Environment

Short Description: How many people does it take to ruin an ecosystem? Pick something to make your school greener and design a plan to implement it.

  • Title: Visiting a Green Building

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: SC.4.E.6.5 Tools and Technology

Short Description: Take a field trip to a green building or place in Miami

  • Title: Learning from a Green Expert

MDC Pacing Guide Activities:

Grade 4, III. Thinking Like a Scientist – Scientific Method

Grade 5, V. Thinking Like a Scientist AA

Short Description: Invite a guest speaker to present on green careers. Research importance of plants/jungles;learn which medicines come from which plants.

  • Title: Milkweed Garden

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: SC.3.L.14.1 Roles of Plant Structures AA*

Short Description: Build a caterpillar/butterfly house for breeding and releasing with milkweed garden.

  • Title: Window Wizards

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: SC.1.P.8.1 Sort Matter by Observable Properties

Short Description: Have children put on their wizard cleaning hats and take aim at windows and mirrors. By mixing a cup of club soda and a tablespoon of lemon juice in a spray bottle, you will have an easy solution to dirty, streaked glass. Be environmentally conscious while cleaning and use an old washcloth instead of paper towels while wiping down the surfaces. If you are worried about children spraying the mixture in their eyes, spray it on the glass for them and have them use the washcloth to wipe it clean. With little helpers the glass may still have fingerprints after a cleaning, but children enjoy helping and teaching them to be responsible around the house is a lesson that can never start to early.

Secondary

  • Title: Green School Facts and High School LEED Certification

Short Description: Go over some important LEED facts, so you can learn what it takes to build, develop and maintain a green school. In addition, high school students can now register for the LEED Green Associate Exam (USGBC lowered the age limit):

  • Title: Inspire Others

Short Description: Create a page on your schools website to showcase your green activities and initiatives

  • Title: Become an Expert in Green Building

Short Description: Conduct research on the concepts of a green building and then create your own (schools, homes, hospitals, multi-purpose etc)

  • Title: Research green businesses

Short Description:Do a short research to learn about what are these businesses doing to be green,What more can they do, and How has being green impacted them?

  • Title: Survey your neighborhood

Short Description: Do a survey to the green buildings in the neighborhood and inspire other students to get out and walk in the community

  • Title: White Board Eraser

MDC Pacing Guide Activity: M/J Comprehensive Science 2 – Unit 7: Ecology XIII. Human Impact on Earth (SC.7.E.6.6; SC.7.N.1.2; MAFS.6.SP.2.5c and d) – C. Pollution