Earthly Delights
RSSby Gail Junion-Metz -- School Library Journal, 03/01/1999
This spring, use the Web to get kids thinking globally and acting locally
When Earth Day, April 22, rolls around this year, you can do more than put up book displays on the environment or recycle last year's recycling information. Why not get students involved in environmental projects for your school, library, and community? Kids can make a difference.
Prepare for the Energy Patrol
To get students into the activist mindset, send them to the Globe Program, created by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Here students in grades 1 to 12 can work on environmental projects with schools around the world. Kids collect local environmental data, share their data online, and then work with research scientists to analyze the results. Check out the "News and Events" section for schedules of live chat sessions with scientists.
Keith Nuthall, an instructional technology specialist at the Unified School District in Poway, CA, created Make a Difference in Your World for grades five to nine. The site asks kids to learn about one environmental issue and then develop a strategy to get their community to address it. The site offers a list of issues such as recycling, protecting endangered tigers, ocean pollution, and old-growth forest preservation. With the help of creatively presented focus questions, students develop TV and radio announcements, editorials, and a Web page on the issue.
The staff at the DeVargas School in Cupertino, CA, developed Here Comes the Energy Patrol. Discover how students in grades two to six can help monitor the lights and thermostats in your library or school -- and save you money. (Check out how much money the DeVargas school saved in the project's first year.)
Got a little extra space near your building? If so, visit Schoolyard Habitats, sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation for grades 3 to 12. Find out how a part of the grounds near your library or school can become a wildlife-friendly place.
The National Wildlife Federation also hosts You Can Help the Earth, a regular feature of Ranger Rick magazine online. Students in grades two to six can find out how to start an "Earthsavers Group." The University of Wisconsin's Environmental Resources Center created Give Water a Hand for grades two to eight. The site encourages kids to learn about their local streams, rivers, and lakes and find out about water problems such as industrial waste, storm runoff, and threats to wetland areas. Kids can download the free "Action" guides to create a clean-up or community education project with the help of local environmental groups.
Eco-Links for Educators
The Web offers many sites for librarians, teachers, and homeschoolers who are looking for information about environmental issues and lesson plans. The Global Rivers Environmental Education Network developed EELink to support K-12 environmental education by organizing Internet resources. Go to the "Class Resources" section for hundreds of topic-specific activity links.
The Amazing Environmental Organization Web Directory was created by a team of 23 volunteers in Santa Barbara, CA. It claims to be the largest environmental directory on the Web, offering a huge number of links to educational sites as well as to companies that handle environmental problems. The EPA Environmental Education Center is the Environmental Protection Agency's Web site for teachers. Take a look at the "Curriculum Resources and Activities" section for topical links to projects and in-class activities.
Web Addresses
For previous "Surf For" links visit SLJ Online at www.slj.com/links.html
The Globe Program
www.globe.gov/
Make a Difference in Your World
powayusd.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/teaching_learning/MT&R/YouMakeDifference.htm
Here Comes the Energy Patrol
www.energy.ca.gov/education/patrol/patrol-html/patrol.html
Schoolyard Habitats
www.nwf.org/habitats/schoolyard/
You Can Help the Earth
www.nwf.org/nwf/rrick/helpearth.html
Give Water a Hand
www.uwex.edu/erc/
Amazing Environmental Organization WebDirectory
www.webdirectory.com/
