Classroom Earth Success Stories

Environmental education in a special education classroom

Pretrina Mullins, a special education teacher at White Pass Junior Senior High School in Randle, Wash., created a recycling program to help her students and community understand more about the importance of sustainable behavior.

She and her students set up recycling bins around the school. They started first by collecting paper then expanded the program to include bottles, glass and aluminum. Her students were responsible for making posters to promote the program as well as collecting and sorting through the combined bins twice a week.

How to reduce your carbon footprint and save your school $11,000

Doreen Petri teaches AP Environmental Science and Anatomy and Physiology at the Northwest Pennsylvania Collegiate Academy in Erie, Pa. Petri has translated classroom content into action through an energy initiative at her school.

The initiative helps students understand the connection between their energy use and climate change and allows them to take a lead role taking actions that save the school energy and money on the electric bill.

Every year for the past six years, the 2,300 students at La Mirada High School in Los Angeles County, Calif. celebrate an energy-themed National Environmental Education Week and Earth Day event. Science students display renewable energy and environmental projects while state agencies, including the California Coastal Commission. The school choir and jazz band perform and students play a variety of eco-themed games.

La Mirada Spanish teacher Norma Williamson coordinates the event. She is passionate about environmental education and uses it to help her students understand the environment through hands-on learning.