April 16-20: Earth Week at Tempe High

Since Earth Day falls on a Sunday this year Tempe High is celebrating their Earth Week this week. A big event is planned and our videography team will be there documenting. We will be sure to share the video and the happenings of the day with you, but in the meantime you may want to take a look at our Earth Day guide under the toolkit tab.

March 16-18: GK-12 Annual Conference

This past March, a team of 8 Sustainable Schools affiliates descended upon the last GK-12 Annual Meeting. The group consisted of 6 Fellows, our Coordinator, and a Tempe High teacher (Jessica Hauer). Our team made several appearances.

Auriane Koster, Brendan Denker and Jessica Hauer presented a workshop presentation titled: “Sustainable Schools Program and Practice: Partnership Building with the Tempe Union High School District”

Auriane Koster shared her energy lesson during the lesson sharathon titled: “Sustainable Energy Basics: Camp Colley”

Omaya, Katie, Ann Marie and Jen presented their poster during the poster session titled: “Sustainability Science for Sustainable Schools: Sustainability Projects as a Method for Student Engagement”

February 27-29: Green Schools National Conference

Auriane and Sandra headed to beautiful Denver, Colorado, at the end of February to the Green Schools National Conference. In addition to attending many informative sessions, they also co-presented on using conceptual modeling to implement sustainability initiatives. Also presenting at the event was past gk-12 Fellow, Erin Frisk!

To learn more about the conference: http://www.greenschoolsnationalconference.org

Welcome to Our New Website!

If you have visited our site in the past, you’ve probably noticed by now that it is very different from what it once was!

We’ve been working for months with the Global Institute of Sustainability’s amazing team of web designers and still have a few more exciting improvements in the works! For example, we’re working diligently to put the polishing touches on our Sustainable School Toolkit. It will contain everything you need to confidently kick off your own sustainability efforts – from lesson plans to Earth Day/Week how-tos to sustainable fundraising!
We hope you enjoy checking out our new site and check back soon for more updates and improvements!

New Year, New Goals!

Hello All!
This is a little belated, but in the spirit of the season, all of the GK-12 fellows have made New Year’s resolutions and wanted to share these goals with you! As you’ll see, we have a busy but exciting semester ahead of us.

  • Ann Marie’s resolution is to see Chandler’s composting learning lab through to completion. This project will bring staff and students from several classes together to help the school begin to compost a portion of its waste.
  • Auriane’s resolution is to create a toolkit full of information on sustainability for teachers.
  • Ben’s resolution is to incorporate the garden/out-door learning lab at Carl Hayden Community High School into the curriculum over this semester. Students will gain life skills while simultaneously gaining a better understanding of our natural world.
  • Brendan’s resolutions are to help plan and implement an amazing Earth Week celebration this spring at Tempe High and to help the Tempe Unified School District successfully complete their first ever annual sustainability survey.
  • Jen’s resolution is to get at least 10 students actively engaged with the new EcoClub at McClintock High School by the end of the semester and to complete 2 successful service projects!
  • Katie’s resolutions are to see the WorkBridge students grow their very first starts in their greenhouse this spring so they are equipped to begin full operation next year and for Bioscience to design a Connection Endeavors ‘toolkit’ for teachers and students so they can more easily apply the sustainability problem-solving process to the great community service and research projects they are already doing.
  • Omaya’s resolution is to help lead already planned classroom sustainability projects to a successful completion by the end of the school year. This way teachers, students, and staff members at Desert Vista can recognize the effect of their inaugural year partnering with GK-12 and garner momentum as they move into their second.
  • Sandra’s resolution is to begin distribution of our state-wide faculty and administration needs assessment survey so that next year we can be set up to do more targeted and helpful outreach activities
  • Tamara’s resolution is to get Coronado’s garden progressed to the point that they can begin doing formal classroom activities out there next fall.

Whew! – and that is just the tip of the iceberg! We’ll keep you updated on these endeavors as well as the other activities we have lined up.