Would you like to establish or expand your school's service learning program?

Would you like to have more project-based learning in your school?

Would you like to offer more interdisciplinary instruction?

Do you want to make more connections between your curriculum and the principles and practices of sustainable living and business?

Do you want your students to be in a better position to participate in the "Green Economy"?

If these possibilities are of interest to you, you may wish to apply to be one of the California schools that will receive special curriculum resources and professional development services.

Over the 2009-2010 school year, with support from California's Public Charter Schools Grant Program, Environmental Charter High School will be disseminating its successful Green Action Curriculum to ten California public schools. Together, we will work to help our students become agents of change in their communities, while they learn concepts, knowledge and skills that will serve them well for the rest of their lives.

Schools will be selected based on these criteria:

• The program is available to middle schools and high schools
• Participating schools must demonstrate leadership commitment and capacity to sustain the program over time
• Each school will have at least three participating faculty members
• All participating schools will have identified academic deficiencies or achievement gaps that they aim to address through their participation in the Green Action Curriculum Program.
• Schools will be distributed across the state.

For more information, see below. To fill out an application, click here.

What is the Green Action Curriculum?

At the crux of the ECHS mission is the requirement that all students go beyond the classroom to examine authentic environmental issues and take meaningful action. To insure students have this opportunity, ECHS has adopted and refined four instructional programs that serve as the cornerstones of its environmental programs. Note: While these programs provide the models of Green Action Curriculum to be disseminated, it is expected that participating schools will adapt these models to make them most effect in their own instructional and community contexts.

Interdisciplinary Program: Each January, ECHS takes a break from its usual schedule of classes to provide students with an interdisciplinary program which is four weeks in duration. During this time, all teachers and students work together in grade level teams to focus on a relevant environmental issue. Through lessons, guest presenters, field studies, and student research, students gain the content knowledge and skills necessary to complete a grade-level service project directly addressing their environmental issue. While each interdisciplinary program addresses relevant and grade-level appropriate content standards, students are also engaged with unique skill development opportunities such as debate or film production. Past interdisciplinary themes include wildfires, the health of their community, water quality, and rain forest depletion.

Green Ambassador Program: Green Ambassadors is an environmental education program that empowers youth to be agents of change in their communities and the world. Through service learning, community partnerships, and cross-cultural and global exchange, the program fosters personal growth and leadership skills to help youth tackle the most critical environmental issues facing our planet. All 10th graders at ECHS take a Green Ambassador class that introduces them to the essential environmental issues of our time. Students also learn the service learning process of awareness, understanding, analysis, action, assessment, and broadcasting. For students who wish to continue with the Green Ambassador Program beyond their 10th grade year, there is an elective available that allows students to focus more intensively on an issue important to them and to work collaboratively with others to create projects to address the issue.

ECHS students find it particularly important that they become leaders in this cause because their community is largely underrepresented in the environmental movement and their community (and others like it) tends to be most detrimentally effected by environmental problems such as toxic drinking water, carcinogenic air, and the health problems that derive from these problems. This fact adds a greater sense of purpose and motivation to our students who embrace the issues on a personal, intellectual, and moral level.

ECHS students have become a strong voice advocating for environmental solutions locally and beyond. Some projects have included cross-cultural exchange which brought students and teachers to Brazil and Costa Rica to share and learn solutions to our global environmental problems. To date, the Green Ambassadors have presented over 50 times to diverse audiences of over 10,000 people. The program has been featured on the Sundance Film Channel, Elevate Film Festival, EPA Environmental Awards, the Local News Paper and NPR, and continues to grow in strength and resolve.

Senior Seminar and Thesis: As part of the graduation requirements at ECHS, senior students must research and write a Senior Thesis. The Senior Thesis allows educators at ECHS to assess the academic skills of graduating seniors and determine if these students have gained the skills necessary to prepare a competent, articulate, academic work at the college level. The Thesis also serves as the culminating environmental project that allows each individual student to demonstrate their ability to identify a relevant community issue of their own choosing, conduct research, take action and communicate their learning in a written and oral presentation to their community

Earth Day Educational Festival: ECHS has a proud tradition of hosting an annual Earth Day Educational Festival for more than 700 hundred local elementary students and community members. Each year, ECHS students prepare educational booths, mini-lessons, demonstrations, and theatrical productions to share what they have learned about their environment in a way that is engaging and accessible to elementary students. The elementary students visit ECHS for a day of learning and fun, while ECHS students get a chance to play teacher and to hone their own skills and understanding in the process.

Flexible Implementation

These programs and resources can be implemented in participating schools in one or more of several ways. For example,

• In an AP Environmental Science Course during the school year
• In any other AP Course after the AP test has been administered
• In regular science classes
• As a special elective course (in some cases, students can receive college credit for this)
• In media classes
• As student projects
• In after-school clubs
• As a special interdisciplinary unit taught for two or three weeks at some point during the school year
• As a school-wide special curriculum during Earth Week.
• Etc.

Project Calendar

Financial Support

Participating schools will receive all training and curriculum resources at no cost. The grant will pay all travel costs to workshops, as well as pay for substitutes for up to 10 release days for each participating teacher (to attend workshops and receive coaching.

Submit Your Application

To apply, click here.

Questions

If you would like to know more, you can contact us at the addresses below:

Sara Laimon, Green Action Curriculum Project Director (click to email)

Dave Hendry, Green Action Curriculum Project Manager (click to email)