Standards-Driven Environmental Literacy 

7th Grade (STEAM & ELA) - Biomimicry and the UN Sustainable Development Goals:

7th-graders are solving real-world problems through engineering and biomimicry! Examples shown:

A (Top, video): Creating an air filter out of living moss structures, addressing UN SDGs 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) & 15 (Life on Land). 

B (Bottom, pictures): Extracting chlorophyll from used Christmas trees to create an organic chlorophyll tablet to integrate into a water bottle filter, addressing UN SDGs 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) & 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation). 

6th Grade (Spanish & Science) - 

Food, Culture, and Climate:

6th-graders in Spanish class conduct research on the relationships among the foods, cultures, and biomes of different Spanish-speaking countries (Ecuador, Chile, Puerto Rico, Spain, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Equatorial Guinea) across the globe. The countries are chosen based on their geographical locations, to ensure countries in the Northern and Southern hemispheres and near or on the equator are represented, to showcase the range of biomes throughout the world. Students explain their findings through board games, prezis, and more.

5th Grade (ELA, Math, Social Studies, & Science) - Animal Stewardship/Pumpkin Hotel:

5th-graders take empathy and engineering by storm in this cross-curricular project! The goal is to build a habitat for this school's Sulcata Tortoise, Pumpkin. Students collaborate in groups to conduct research about Pumpkin and her species, budget and built habitat models, and teach their PK-8 peers about the project, Pumpkin's needs, and why Sulcatas are on the Vulnerable Species list. 

Students learn from a reptile expert, an engineer, and two architects, to analyze the project from a variety of different lenses, and to understand the wide variety of careers in the STEAM industry. They write grant proposals to fund the project and meet the standards of their persuasive writing ELA unit. They also write letters to the local newspaper to include the public in the conversation. They work through the engineering design process with teamwork, empathy, and compassion as their chief ideals. They are the future!

4th Grade (Art, Science, Math, & Social Studies) - 

Cross-Curricular Ecosystem Diorama Project:

4th-grade students embark on a cross-curricular adventure through the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest, Chinese Gobi Desert, Alaskan Arctic region, and Kenya's Lake Victoria. After finishing a months-long project built on 4th-grade Social Studies, Science, and Math standards, they pair their understanding of what makes up an ecosystem with how to read a map to analyze the relationships among the living organisms in the region of their choice - and demonstrate their learning through art! Students are challenged to understand and communicate the world around them through a more holistic lens.

3rd Grade (Science, ELA, & Social Studies) - 

Pollinator Garden:

3rd grade take civic action for our global and local environments by building a pollinator garden on school grounds! In this interdisciplinary unit, they research pollinators and their migratory pathway, and connect that learning to their mapping content in Social Studies. Students study why pollinators and other animals migrate, why Monarchs are endangered, and how gardens helps Monarchs thrive despite habitat fragmentation. To reflect on their findings through English Language Arts, they write haikus about our pollinating friends. After presenting to the school, these students lead a school-wide project in writing positivity rocks to decorate the garden with the love and care they poured into their learning.

2nd Grade (Science & Social Studies) - 

Long-Term Citizen Science Project:

2nd grade students are embarking on a long-term project that challenges them to become stewards of school campuses through data collection. Students participate in place-based learning to by tagging and identifying trees both with their own dichotomous keys and using the iNaturalist and PictureThis apps. Students measure and calculate the diameters of all trees within 0.1 hectares to analyze carbon storage and sequestration. They input all data collected into an online database, to be shared with the public. Students can present their work and research to the public at community events both within and beyond school. They can continue this project for years to come, tracking changes over time to understand how local environments help mitigate climate change!

1st Grade (Science & SEL) - 

Plants and Sound Waves:

Did you know plants grow better when you give them compliments? 1st-graders know this from first-hand experience. In this interdisciplinary project that blends sound waves with plant structure, function, and information processing, students collect weekly data on sugar snap peas using an indoor garden. They explore SEL practices to give compliments to 2 of the 4 plants and speak regular sentences to the other 2. It turns out, not only do compliments make plants grow bigger, they also make them grow faster!

Kindergarten (Science & ELA) - 

Weather & Infrared Analysis of Energy:

Kindergarten students chart the temperature and weather each day in September and make predictions about the Sun's influence on the Earth. Students make solar mittens to capture the difference in temperature and albedo between the two colors. They build on their data collection of clouds to make our own! Cloud in a bottle is a fantastic experiment that shows students what it takes to make a cloud and why.

Students build on their weather unit to analyze how, in the fall, trees change color (lose energy) in their extremities first, just like people. They analyze their infrared pictures of people to support this concept of energy in the fall, then incorporate energy into their nature drawings that follow. Energy is life!

Pre-K (Engineering, Science, Social Studies) - Indigenous Cultures & Snow Science:

Pre-K students transform their classroom into an icy blast from the past by building their very own egg carton igloo! They studied the culture and traditions of the North American Inuit people and the Arctic ecosystem they belong to. They learned about arctic animals and their unique adaptations for their environment, as well as how to engineer from nature. Then, they practiced measuring with rulers and sorting and counting based on size, shape, and material. Students recycled egg cartons to use for their own construction project. Finally, they compiled their research into tallies and graphs, and shared their findings with our peers!