Individual+&+Small+Group+Ideas

=Individual & Grade-Level Project Ideas =

**Research a topic and formulate a plan to live more sustainably and/or develop a new curriculum unit or service project.**

 * • Coordinate Summit's recycling program:** Work with staff and students to make sure our recycling program runs efficiently, organize student volunteers as necessary, and plan a waste reduction/recycling campaign


 * • Develop a “green map” of all or part of our campus:** Explore the natural and constructed features of our grounds while preparing a map to share with others. See websites: http://www.greenmap.org/, http://www.greenmap.org/greenhouse/en/about/iconintro, and http://www.chicagoreader.com/features/stories/ourtown/071115/maps/


 * • Conduct an energy/lighting audit of your classroom or office:** Learn how to determine your energy use and with/without students, develop a conservation/efficiency plan for your classroom and a method of charting progress and evaluating success


 * • Work with your students to conduct a building audit:** Determine your energy use and develop a conservation/efficiency plan; download info from http://www.earthday.net/ccscsite/SchoolEnergyAuditEditedFinal.pdf

• **Wind Energy:** Participate in an experiment with Chris Culp about how to design a really efficient windmill

• **Determine your eco-footprint:** Use online calculators to determine your personal eco-footprint, analyze how it comes to the average U.S. and international footprint, and find ways to reduce it by 10% or more. Here are a few calculators: The Personal Footprint Calculator http://www.footprintnetwork.org/gfn_sub.php?content=myfootprint Berkeley Cool Climate Calculator http://coolclimate.berkeley.edu/ EPA http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html Zero Footprint Youth Calculator (for kids) http://www.zerofootprintkids.com/kids_home.aspx Bobbie Bigfoot calculator (for kids) http://www.kidsfootprint.org


 * • Prepare and offer an original workshop for students and/or teachers:** Introduce other members of our community to something about nature that you deeply enjoy and care about: birding, fishing, nature drawing, tree/plant identification, small critter observation, scientific research outdoors, etc.


 * • Waste analysis:** Determine what kind of waste you and your students produce while at school and develop a plan to significantly reduce it; develop a method of charting progress and evaluating success


 * • Restructure your social studies curriculum:** Include essential questions that help students understand how the physical environment of the lands studied helps shape the history and the development of cultures; evaluate students’ sustainable thinking and analysis throughout the year


 * • Develop and put into practice a plan to integrate your traditional curriculum areas with PE:** Use outdoor education as the foundation for nature and reflective writing, energy/science studies, geography explorations, etc.


 * • Learn how to live more sustainably while improving your technology skills (work on two professional growth goals simultaneously!):** use new and old media to explore a specific topic that interests you (energy, oceans, plastics, food, etc.); consult with in-house experts about equipment (ex: Shuffles) and resources such as podcasts (ex: http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php), rss feeds (ex: http://www.ee.enr.state.nc.us/rssfeeds.html), etc.


 * • Curriculum Development:** How might sustainability education and/or systems thinking be integrated into a specific unit at your grade level? See http://www.facingthefuture.org/