Green Schools By: Mrs. LaValle’s class

Purpose of project What’s going to make us want to come back to Northville in 20 years? Green schools will, knowing your kids will have better grades because of sky holes, etc. Your health will be better because of cleaner air, etc.

What is a green school? A school that helps the environment A school who does at least 10 activities out of the following list of 20, which is the official green school list. One who encourages students to not pollute One who is certified to be a official green school because of meeting certain criteria

Criteria to be a Green School 1. The school recycles paper. 2. The school reuses its magazines and newspapers for other projects. 3. The school has adopted an endangered species animal from 1 of several organizations and posted a picture of the animal in a main traffic area. 4. The school media center updates its print and nonprint ecological materials regularly. 5. An energy savings program has been instituted at the school.

6. Students at the school participate in a planned program of energy savings, including dusting coils on cafeteria refrigerators, placing film on windows, setting hot water heaters 1 degree lower, seeing how plants and trees strategically placed can save energy for the school, and checking proper inflation in bus tires and other school vehicles once a month.

7. The school has hosted a visit by an ecological spokesperson, a representative of the Sierra Club, an endangered animals species show, or a similar presentation. 8. The school has a birdhouse habitat project. 9. The school has established a natural Michigan garden project with native plants. 10. The school has solar power presentations or experiments, such as a solar cookout.

11. Classes do energy audits of their classrooms and make improvements, such as placing film on windows, caulking windows, or using kits to make windows more energy efficient. 12. The school has a printer cartridge recycling program through which the school earns money by selling the cartridges to 1 or more companies that buy cartridges from schools.

13. The school recycles batteries and has designated a representative to return them to an appropriate recycling program. 14. The school recycles cellular telephones and receives money for the telephones from recycling companies that work with schools. 15. The school observes Earth Day in some way in April.

16. Art classes at the school have a poster contest to support ecology concerns and a school wide display in conjunction with Earth Day activities. 17. The school has science class projects in which students do several home energy improvements, such as turn down hot water heaters, install home window insulation kits, clean coils on home refrigerators, and install draft guards for doors.

18. The school has an ecology club, whose activities include such activities as helping senior citizens make their homes more energy efficient, putting in new furnace filters, caulking windows, cleaning refrigerator coils in homes, and setting water heaters 1 degree lower.

19. The school’s classes visit internet sites where clicking saves rainforest habitat and teachers document the students’ efforts. 20. The school sets a goal of 5% less energy usage in the school and works with local power utilities to see progress toward the goal.

What Have We Done? An interview team has talked to three people, a literature team and web research team has found the criteria for a green school and more, and a survey group has made surveys for all teachers and Mrs.Long’s class,

Results of Mr. Babich’s Interview Plants on a green roof help to cool off the building and saves money because you use less energy cooling the building. Natural lighting is better for the environment, and your eyes. President Obama is trying to convince schools to go green.

Results of Nancy Gregor’s interview Nancy Gregor is the head of the Wayne county green schools. She told us the easiest way to start going green is to recycle different materials. She also told us that there were no emerald schools in Wayne county.

More Results of Nancy Gregor’s interview Another thing she told us is elementary schools were the most common to go green. So middle and high schools need to get going. Start with recycling like Nancy Gregor told us. Last, she told us that 16 schools have turned in green school applications. Let’s get those applications turned in! If you are trying to go green, don’t start with expensive stuff! Start off with simple stuff. Follow Nancy Gregor’s rules and you’ll go green!

Results for Dr.Anderson Dr.Anderson was one of the people we interviewed. He is our principal. He told us that at the time, we still needed to turn in our green school application. Since then, we have been working with him to help secure our green school status. This year, our goal is to become an emerald school, because we saw that we did 19 out of 20 activities on the green school list. He also told us that we are the only school that he knows of that is green. (IN NORTHVILLE) That means that we have to get other kids and schools about going green. THANK YOU.

Survey Results The majority of people surveyed knew what a green school is. Everybody surveyed wanted more recycling at our school. Not everyone knew what their school recycled.

Green Schools Save Money A Green school usually saves $100,000 a year. A typical school lasts 42 years. How much would we save? Lots of money. If you want to be exact, that’s $4,200,000

Green Schools Save Energy On average, a green school uses 30%- 50% less energy and 30% less water. If our school went completely green right now, energy savings alone would total $20 billion over the next ten years.

What we still have to do Create bird habitat project Form ecology club Home-energy audit Rain garden Inform and educate other schools

Create a birdhouse habitat project The fifth graders are going to build birdhouses in the courtyard. The time when we start this project is not yet decided.

Form an ecology club Mr. Babich (5 th grade teacher) will be sponsoring the ecology club, which will help senior citizens make their homes more energy efficient, putting in new furnace filters, caulking windows, cleaning refrigerator coils in homes, and setting water heaters 1 degree lower. The ecology club will include 4 th and 5 th graders.

Home-energy audit The survey group is making an energy audit that will be sent home to all students by . The energy audits will have a list of criteria to make your home more energy efficient.

Rain garden Dr. Anderson is planning to take all the fifth grader to the playground to plant a rain garden.

Inform and educate other schools We are planning to inform and educate other schools in Northville about green schools. We are hoping they will listen and attempt to be a greener school. None of the schools in Northville are green other than Amerman.

Bibliography Fraser, Stephen Being Green Weekly Reader April 2006 Ross, Brooke Fuels of the Future Weekly Reader April 2007 Delbanco, Andrea Earth Smart Time for Kids April 2006

Mr. Dave Babich, Fifth grade teacher. Nancy Gregor, Head of Wayne County departments of Green Schools. Dr. Steve Anderson, Principal of Amerman Elementary school.

Green school design. (2009, February 24). Cel. Retrieved February 24, 2009, from ats.html (2009, February 23). Nesa. Retrieved February 23, 2009, from Green remodel. (2009, February 23). Earthdaynetwork. Retrieved February 23, 2009, from The four pillars. (2009, February 23). The little green schoolhouse. Retrieved February 23, 2009, from The Green Schools Initiative. Ed.,. 27 Feb

Green school design. (2009, February 24). Cel. Retrieved February 24, 2009, from (2009, February 23). Nesa. Retrieved February 23, 2009, from Green remodel. (2009, February 23). Earthdaynetwork. Retrieved February 23, 2009, from The four pillars. (2009, February 23). The little green schoolhouse. Retrieved February 23, 2009, from The Green Schools Initiative. Ed.,. 27 Feb

Credits Mohsin Yannis Richard Haley Neha Chris Peter Aashima Robert Arpit Jon Ander Justin Eddie Brittany Arun Erica Connor Liam Rohan Allie Kevin Katherine Jean Mrs. LaValle

Groups Web Research Yannis Mohsin Chris Liam Survey Kevin Aashima Justin Peter Interview Katherine Neha Allie Eddie Brittany Haley Rohan Jean Literature Jon Ander Richard Erica Connor Robert Arun Arpit

Congratulations Amerman! Congratulations, Amerman! You are now an emerald school!