Environment advocates are our modern-day heroes. They are the passionate volunteers and environmentalists who help save our planet and inspire others to do so. Teachers can be environment advocates too! Read on and find real stories of how teachers influenced and inspired their students and community to take responsibility in caring for the environment.
Green prize
When Mike Town was a boy, he considered Jacques Cousteau as one of his heroes. Cousteau was a French explorer and filmmaker who brought the beauty of marine life to viewers through the “The Undersea World of Jacques-Yves Cousteau”— a TV series that fascinated audiences from all over the world. Town had no idea that one day he will meet one of Cousteau’s grandsons — a correspondent on the TV networks, Planet Green and Animal Planet — to present him the inaugural $25,000 Green Prize in Environmental Education.
Town teaches environmental science at Redmond High. He was recognized by the NEA Foundation because of his “Cool School Challenge” program, an educational program which aims to motivate students and teachers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in and around their school. This program will teach students and teachers to conduct a classroom energy audit. After which, the students will form a strategy to lessen greenhouse gas emissions to its minimum level.
About 150 participating schools all over the country saved about 1.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. In Redmond High alone, they save an estimate of more than $30,000 a year in electricity and waste costs.
Town, when interviewed, said that he wanted to become a teacher because of its “multiplier effect.” When he teaches young people, his love for the environment reaches even more people. Indeed, his program made many people move and take steps to restore the environment.
Town is able to make his students act and not just listen. In the Advanced Placement Environmental Science class he teaches, students do not only memorize facts and take exams, they get inspired. They even ended up developing a new transportation plan for the city of Redmond, which they plan to present to the City Council.
Town used the prize money he got to add more solar array in their homes. They grow a lot of their own food, and they drive a hybrid car.
After receiving his award, Town was tapped by the National Science Foundation to do a one-year fellowship in Washington, D.C.
Weather report
David Knight, a teacher from the University of Virginia students, discusses this relation of weather and the human behavior through a summer course entitled “Man’s Atmospheric Environment.” His students are Majors of Foreign Affairs, Religious Studies and Middle-Eastern studies. Knight has a master’s degree in Environmental Science and a master’s degree in Urban and Environmental planning.
The course was designed to give a broad view on how the weather impacts human behavior. For example, the unusually cold weather when the 1986 Challenger space shuttle was launched contributed to the failure of an O-ring seal in the shuttle’s right booster and its subsequent explosion.
Different industries also heavily consider the weather in their decisions. For instance, wine grape growers plant on the south side of a hill to maximize sun exposure, while ski resort owners place slopes on the north side of mountains to minimize melting of snow.
Furthermore, Knight discusses weather map analysis, extra-credit forecasting contests, and current weather studies, as well as climate change and global warming. For the latter, they did a debate on the different perspectives of the oil industry and Greenpeace on the issue.
Sources:
“Environmental Science Class Studies the Impact of Weather on Human Behavior.” Retrieved April 21, 2010 from
http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=9027
“Redmond High environmental-science teacher wins $25,000 Green Prize.” Retrieved April 21, 2010 from
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011649351_greenprize20m.html