Students investigate areas where improvements can be made in indoor air quality, transportation, chemical use, and more.
Below is a collection of resources that support PLT’s GreenSchools Environmental Quality Investigation.
To get the investigation, register as a PLT GreenSchool, or purchase a print copy.
Discover ways to green your home - and save money - with these questions and tips. This Green Your Home checklist will help children and their families decide together what they might do to improve their environment at home.
Every month we carefully select new tools and resources that enhance PLT’s lessons. These include educational apps, videos, posters, interactive websites, careers information, and teacher-generated materials. Browse a chronological listing below:
Learn more about the life of a field forester and more in this booklet Find Your Path from the Oregon Forest Resources Institute. Joe Newton, once a professional football player for the Seattle Seahawks, now works for Lone Rock Timber in Roseburg, Oregon as a Field Forester. He collaborates with tree-planters, helicopter pilots, and other company staff to maintain the health and improvement of tree plantations. This booklet provides other forest-sector employee profiles – forest manager, natural resource ecologist, research economist, logging crew, millwright – offering advice, short job-descriptions, and the various curves they took on their career path.
Imagine If is a podcast on climate resilience. Developed by the National Association for Environmental Education and National Geographic, Imagine If interviews change-makers affecting positive change on the world. Imagine If features high school students designing solutions to environmental issues in their communities. Listen with your students and inspire them to become change-makers in their community!
Did you know that indoor air can be up to 100 times more polluted than outside air due to the accumulation of volatile organic compound (VOC) levels caused by chemical cleaning agents? Have students investigate the impact of common cleaning products on their environment, learn about “green cleaning,” and how to create their very own non-toxic cleaning products to use at home or in the classroom. The EP Cleaners’ Eco-Friendly Guide to Cleaning provides student with everything they need to start “green cleaning.”
Have you thought about trying crowdfunding to help get a GreenSchools project off the ground? Or reaching out to your community to find advocates and volunteers? The ioby (in our back yards) crowd-resourcing platform can connect you with funding and support. Whether it’s updating your school garden, adding a cafeteria composting program, or teaching students about renewables, crowdfunding can be an effective tool for getting more parents and neighbors invested in your green school work. Anyone with a great idea for their community can collect tax-deductible donations, find volunteers, and access one-on-one customized fundraising coaching on ioby.org. This national nonprofit crowdfunding platform is designed for projects that make schools and neighborhoods more sustainable, healthy, connected and livable.
The Coalition for Healthier Schools released a checklist to help schools implement “green cleaning” practices and to determine where improvements might be made to ensure schools inhibit mold and mildew, control dust, have fresh airflow and effective ventilation, prevent toxic fumes, and reduce chemical exposures. This checklist is part of a Green Cleaning for Healthy Schools toolkit.
Looking for ways to bring sustainability projects to your school? Use the Sustainability in Schools Game with your middle and high school students to explore the cost-benefits. The game includes 45 cards covering a range of sustainability projects that could be implemented in your own school, along with video instructions and critical thinking questions to get your students thinking.
This U.S. EPA website provides information about asthma and how to control asthma triggers in schools, by promoting healthy indoor air quality.
This U.S. EPA website provides facts on mold and tips for reducing mold in schools.
Old glass thermometer broke during a class experiment, now what? This U.S. EPA website provides information on how to clean up mercury spills.
The U.S. Forest Service displays live air quality images and current air quality conditions throughout the United States, featuring real-time images.
EPA’s Schools Chemical Cleanout Campaign (SC3) is working to encourage schools to use green cleaning practices to safely clean their classrooms and grounds. From elementary school maintenance closets to high school chemistry labs, schools use a variety of chemicals. Some of the most essential chemicals are those that keep schools clean and safe for students to learn and grow. However, the chemicals used in cleaning products can sometimes be harmful to human health and to the environment. Green Cleaning and Healthy Products Cleaning for Healthy Schools provides two toolkits for green cleaning and using healthy products in schools.
The National Center for Safe Routes to School provides resources and activities that help schools identify ways to improve safety and accessibility for students walking and biking to school, as well as ways to reduce traffic and air pollution in the vicinity of schools.
This app, provided by the U.S. EPA, helps schools assess important issues such as ventilation, cleaning and maintenance, environmental asthma triggers, radon, and integrated pest management.
A “Green Jobs” curriculum and activity guide funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, National Job Corps Office, and the Conservation Education Program.
The U.S. EPA website provides specific information on the use and the proper disposal of fluorescent light bulbs. Fluorescent light bulbs must be properly disposed of because they contain very small amounts of mercury. This website also includes information on comparing and choosing light bulbs.
Be inspired by the latest video in EPA’s 20th Anniversary Environmental Justice Video Series that features Penny Newman of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. Penny’s 5-minute video describes the environmental justice concerns of the Inland Valley communities in Southern California, and the ways local residents are making positive changes to protect the health of their families and neighbors.
EPA’s Radiation Protection Program has launched the RadTown USA website, created to allow middle and high school students to explore radiation- where it is found and how it is used- in four different environments. The website also has Common Core supported content, including the history of radiation protection, ways to reduce exposure risk, careers in radiation protection, and the benefits of radiation.
As we know, trees represent more than just beautiful natural elements of our land, they also provide shade, manage water, stop erosion, protect streams, soothe the soul, clean the air, protect the quality and health of water, and attract homeowners, renters, and shoppers. Check out this Doodle Lecture created by Alabama Cooperative Extension that unveils the many benefits of having trees in our communities.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) website provides an interactive carbon footprint calculator designed for use by students in middle or high school. The calculator begins by asking students to investigate some baseline data points, such as their average home energy usage, transportation habits, and waste disposal process. Then, the calculator offers ways impact reduction by offering tangible conservation tips alongside estimated annual savings. This is an excellent tool for making home connections, as well as a compliment to PLT GreenSchools!
Imagine this. Students, teachers, and administrators working together to achieve a common goal – improving the environmental quality and sustainability of school campuses. Now imagine …
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