By PLT Staff

Melinda Gray Ardia Environmental Foundation Grants
Deadline: September 20, 2010
K-12 teachers are invited to apply for grants up to $1,500 to implement environmental curricula, such as PLT, that integrate hands-on ecology exercises into the classroom.  To facilitate learning and student empowerment, environmental curricula should be holistic and strive to synthesize multiple levels of learning (facts, concepts, and principles), including experiential integrated learning and problem solving.  Visit the Melinda Gray Ardia Environmental Foundation website for more information and proposal submission details.   

National Public Lands Day 2010
September 25, 2010
(resource for PLT’s PreK-8 activities “A Forest of Many Uses,” “Loving it Too Much,” “400-Acre Wood,” and “I’d Like to Visit a Place Where…”)
National Public Lands Day (NPLD), September 25th, 2010, celebrates service and recreation on public lands. NPLD engages adult and youth volunteers to get outdoors and improve their lands, whether at the grandest national park or at an urban park in their neighborhood. The event also encourages volunteers to explore and enjoy America's natural wonders through outdoor recreation. After working hard, volunteers can take a hike, a swim, a bicycle ride and get healthy in America's backyard. Registration for NPLD is now open at www.publiclandsday.org.

Earth Science Week Contests
Deadline: October 15, 2010
The American Geological Institute (AGI) is sponsoring three national contests in conjunction with Earth Science Week 2010, celebrating the theme of "Exploring Energy," October 10-16, 2010. Visit www.earthsciweek.org/contests for additional information.
Photography Contest, "We Depend on Energy" - Entrants should submit images that capture the way energy is used in their communities.
Visual Arts Contest, "Energy on Earth" - Students in grades K-5 should submit two-dimensional original pieces of art illustrating, in creative and engaging ways, where energy comes from and how it is used.
Essay Contest, "How Energy Powers the Planet" - Students in grades 6-9 should submit one-page essays focusing on how Earth system processes develop energy resources, how human use of energy affects the Earth system, and how people can be responsible stewards of Earth's energy resources.

Angela Award
Deadline: November 30, 2010
The Angela Award is a new National Science Teachers Association award for middle school girls, honoring one young woman who is involved in or has a strong connection to science.  Visit the NSTA website to submit a nomination or review the other award categories.   

PollinatorLIVE: GreenWorks! Grants and Ecoregional Pollinator Guides
Deadline: December 1, 2010
To support the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign, PLT is providing GreenWorks! grants of up to $500 in conjunction with PollinatorLIVE, a free distance learning adventure featuring live interactive webcasts, web seminars, and satellite field trips for classrooms about pollinators, gardening, and conservation. Students and community members can invite pollinators to their neighborhood by planting a pollinator friendly habitat in a garden, farm, school, park or just about anywhere!  Ecoregional Pollinator Guides, tailored to specific areas of the U.S., provide information about selecting native plants for pollinators.  Visit www.pollinator.org to find out in which ecoregion you reside and download your free guide, and visit www.greenworks.org to apply for a grant!

Audubon International Hosts Free Webinars
To help celebrate the United Nation’s Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, throughout 2010 Audubon International is hosting a series of environmental training webinars designed to help people become better stewards of the environment where they live, work, and play. New webinars have been added to the schedule, with more added throughout the year. Visit www.auduboninternational.org/webinars to review and register for an upcoming event. Registration is free, but space is limited. 

360 Education Solutions – Professional Development Courses
360 Education Solutions is available to assist educators in their search for quality online teaching degree programs. Created specifically for educators, 360 Education Solutions offers a comprehensive listing of professional development opportunities. Browse their database to review regionally accredited graduate level courses that will enhance teaching skills and increase classroom achievement. Support and information is provided to help you achieve learning goals and satisfy professional development requirements.

How Green is My Town?
(resource for PLT’s GreenSchools! program)
"How Green is My Town?" is a grassroots effort to empower citizens and local decision makers to address the issues of climate change, sustainability, and environmental health at the local level. The website functions as a national clearinghouse of programs, ideas, and policies for exploring solutions. Learn how you can be part of that change by reviewing a list of actions any school or town can take.

GeoPlatform
(resource for PLT’s PreK-8 activities “Renewable or Not,” “Energy Sleuths,” “In the Driver’s Seat,” “Our Changing World” and PLT’s Energy & Society curriculum)
GeoPlatform, a newly launched website, produced by NOAA, Department of the Interior, EPA and the U.S. Coast Guard, offers map-based real-time Gulf Oil Spill response information, with timely, accurate information about local shoreline areas impacted by oil.  The website integrates the latest data about the oil spill’s trajectory with fishery closures, wildlife data, and place-based Gulf Coast resources into an interactive map.

Dead Planet, Living Planet
(resource for PLT’s PreK-8 activities “Picture This!,” “Charting Diversity,” and “Life on the Edge,” and PLT’s Exploring Environmental Issues: Biodiversity secondary module.)
The report, Dead planet, Living Planet: Biodiversity and ecosystem restoration for sustainable development, is a contribution to the UN’s International Year of Biodiversity and is a complement to the UNEP-hosted Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity which is bringing visibility to the wealth of the world’s natural capital.  The report documents successful case studies referencing thousands of restoration projects ranging from deserts and rainforests to rivers and coasts.  The report provides recommendations on how to avoid pitfalls and minimize risks to ensure successful restoration.  It is downloadable from the website and can be read online as an interactive e-book.

Trash to Treasure Competition
(resource for PLT’s PreK-8 activities “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” “Renewable or Not,” “Make Your Own Paper,” “A Look at Aluminum,” and PLT’s Municipal Solid Waste secondary module)
PBS's Design Squad invites kids ages 5-19 to turn their trash into treasure by recycling, reusing, and re-engineering everyday materials into an out-of-the box invention.  The deadline for submission is September 5, 2010.  Three winners will be chosen to see their ideas become a reality. Visit the PBS Kids website for more details and information.

US EPA Wastes Website
(resource for PLT’s PreK-8 activities “Waste Watchers,” “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” and “Renewable or Not” and PLT’s Municipal Solid Waste secondary module)
Divided into four sections – What You Can Do, Resource Conservation, Hazardous Waste, and Nonhazardous Waste - this EPA website contains information to spark classroom conversations about waste.  For example, What You Can Do has categorized resources to help consumers generate less waste in the home, in the community, at the office, in industry, and at the store.  In Your Home tells how to make environmentally friendly choices at home by “greenscaping” yards and gardens and properly discarding household medical waste, electronics, used motor oil, and more.

Plant for the Planet Video
(resource for PLT’s PreK-8 activities “Plant a Tree,” “Three Cheers for Trees,” “The Global Climate,” and the secondary activity “Analyzing Patterns of Forest Change” in PLT’s Forests of the World module)
Inspired by Wangari Maathai, 9-year-old Felix Finkbeiner founded “Plant for the Planet” and has planted more than 500,000 trees in Germany which he says will help sequester carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Watch Felix’s video, part of the Young Voices on Climate Change series, to learn about his efforts to plant trees for a healthier world.

Weather Wiz
(resource for PLT’s PreK-8 activities “Water Wonders” and “The Global Climate”)
At http://theweatherwiz.com, students learn to forecast the weather like a professional meteorologist.  Visit the website and click on “Wiz School” to learn basic information about weather, images of storms and clouds, activities to help develop forecasting skills, and how-to methods for forecasting different weather events.  Users can also access long-range weather forecasts up to two years out, for locations across the United States and the globe.