2008 Common Project: Reducing our Carbon Footprint
NALS is inviting and encouraging all members and member schools to become involved in this year’s Common Project, “REDUCING OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT.” This project is designed to provide members a positive means to interact with students, with one another and with the environment. This project can take place anytime over the course of the next school year.
Five hundred pennies were donated for the project. NALS was able to donate a total of $10,500.
Mosquito nets for African villages where malaria continues to take its toll on the population were purchased with the funds raised from this project.
Some of the students measured the length of the pennies collected.
Other students sorted the pennies by the date they were minted.
NALS is encouraging members to be proactive in protecting and preserving the world in which we live. Get students INVOLVED and ENGAGED in problem based learning, problem solving, critical thinking and inquiry related to how their school and their individual actions impact the environment.
Have students ponder the question: “How can your school significantly reduce its carbon footprint?”
In order to answer this question, students will need to conduct research or visit a website where the carbon footprint of the school can be calculated. These sites will calculate your carbon footprint:
http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/?gclid=CPCbnZiPoZQCFQnIsgod8VGQtQ
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html
These sites have project ideas:
http://www.theclimateproject.org/ourpresenters.php?id=21
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/wue/class_projects.html
This is a classroom based COMMON PROJECT. Classes or groups can develop lessons or units, design action projects, involve students in research and publish findings, start a Blog, do podcasts, create and film public service announcements for your school or local TV channels, etc.
Once you have gathered baseline data and found creative, innovative and effective ways to reduce or encourage the reduction the overall carbon footprint of your school share your ideas and outcomes with NALS schools. We encourage you to attend the NALS Fall Symposium at Florida Atlantic University.
NALS plans to contact government and environmental groups to support this project and provide opportunities for publication and recognition for individuals and schools involved in this project. Most importantly, don’t get involved for the benefits for individuals, for schools, or for NALS; get involved because it is the right thing to do and the right time to do it.
You will remember that our 2006 national conference in New York City, our keynote address was given by Jeffrey Sachs, head of The Earth Institute at Columbia University and a co-founder of the Millennium Promise program through the United Nations. Dr. Sachs challenged us to help the children in our schools learn about issues affecting the global community. At that conference, we pledged half the proceeds of our Silent Auction to buy mosquito nets for the children in the Millennium Promise African villages.