8d. Program design includes emerging green sustainability skills

See Web link to access green technology resources.

Green Projects

The FFA club consistently participates in the Teddy Roosevelt Island birthday celebration. This celebration is designed to commemorate President Roosevelt and his ecologically progressive ideas. The students take class animals to the park. They discuss the animal’s similarity and difference to local animals with the visitors. This helps to educate the public about the importance of our National Parks and our environment.

The FFA club also ran a leaf raking fund raiser. The students advertised and scheduled yards to rake. They then raked the leaves to the curb. The leaves were then picked up by the county for use in its mulch program.

Possible Green Competencies

Students will be able to differentiate between animal supply needs and wasteful use of resources.

Students will recycle or reuse appropriate material in the classroom and lab.

Students will reduce energy use as appropriate.

Students will compost appropriate materials.

Students will use procedures to safeguard the watershed.

Classroom Practices that Support Sustainability

The Animal Science Program has many procedures in place that help support sustainability both in the lab and in the classroom.

The lab provides many opportunities to conserve. One of our biggest volume products is pine shavings. To help reduce the amount used while still providing clean living spaces for our animals, we give students specific instructions of how much to use. Students tend to over fill enclosures and this helps them reduce the amount used. For our horse stall, the bedding that was not dirtied over night is separated from the used bedding and reused during the day. For most of our animals that can not use pine shavings, we reuse newspapers for their bedding. Animals require nutritious food, however, having a variety of animals allows us to maximize food use. Bird food is retained until the birds would not be able to find the food through all the seed shells. When the bird food is going to be completely replaced, the old food is put into the rat cages. This provides the rats with a treat and an enrichment activity. Any fresh produce that is past its usefulness for the vertebrate animals is given to the roaches. Teachers also bring rotting produce from their homes to give to the roaches. Two school programs that have food waste also give us their old produce to feed the roaches. Animal waste is cleaned and contained to prevent contamination of the environment. Dog feces are picked up and students also clean up after non-school dogs when inconsiderate owners walk their dogs on school property. When applicable, electrical devices are on timers so electricity is used only when needed.

In the classroom, teachers only make enough copies of materials for one per student. All materials are posted on the Blackboard web site and students who lose papers can print off what they need. This reduces the amount of paper used. Every teacher knows that some students are going to need additional copies of materials, but no one knows how many copies. This procedure prevents the teacher from over estimating and encourages the student to look for the missing papers before logging in to print more copies. Teachers also print originals and then use the office copier to create two sided copies, further reducing paper use. Any originals or other one sided papers, that are no longer needed, are placed near the class printer and used when able. One of the special education programs in the building facilitates recycling. Each teacher has a paper recycling box and there is a larger plastic recycling box for other items in the lab.