Welcome to the Michigan Green Schools Website.
BIG NEWS! All Michigan Green School particpants are invited to apply for the first National Green Ribbon Award. Four Michigan schools will be nominated by a panel of judges for review with The US Department of Education. Michigan is one of the pioneer states to particpate in this first year of the national program. All entries are to be submitted to The Michigan Department of Education. The deadline set by The US Dept of Education is FEBRUARY 17.
PLEASE HELP PROTECT MICHIGAN'S threatened and endangered animals this year. The Michigan DNR offers an official patch each year depicting a threatened or endangered animal. They look great on a jacket and are six dollars each online. You may purchase past year's animal patches as well. Just visit The Michigan DNR website.
DID YOU KNOW? Michigan is one of five states that doesn't meet federal guidelines for particulates in the air? Every green school saving energy helps clean our air.
To become an official Michigan Green School for this academic year all applications must be sent to your county coordinator by March 1, 2012. To find your coordinator check the contact page.
The Michigan Green School Office is hosted by The Hartland Consolidated School District. Our mailing address is 9525 Highland Ave., Howell, Mi 48843.
Goals
It is the goal of Michigan Green Schools Foundation to make this website a resource of environmental education for our schools and to consistently provide schools with new energy savings tips as well as environmental activities. We will be upgrading the website much more frequently this school year. Please check often for updates and environmental projects and tips.
Educational Materials For You!
The Foundation is happy to inform you that we are now providing environmental education support to all our schools. All schools may check out a solar cook kit and solar event kit to demonstrate solar energy. A great activity is baking apples in the cooker. Also available for your use is a set of 40 lesson plans (K-12) that meet Michigan curriculum standards in many subjects areas and beyond. These lesson plans are all copyright-free for Michigan Green School Participants.
Each coordinator has a list of educational support materials for your schools to use. Here are the items for 2011-12 school year.
Flower Pot Maker - This item allows students to make biodegradable newspaper seed pots which may be used for native Michigan Garden projects including rain gardens.
Books - These are some of the new titles chosen to support the Michigan Green School program.
NEW! The Adventures of Plastic Bottle and The Adventures an Aluminum Can. Great for reading to an elementary class. Very well done.:)
One Child, One Planet - a wonderful elementary level book beautifully illustrated on the importance of protecting the Earth by a Michigan author.
Bluebird Rescue - This book is appropriate for all grade levels and was chosen because bluebirds are a threatened species in Michigan. Includes a bird house project which qualifies for one of the 20 points.
Bottlecap Little Bottlecap This volume shows you how to make cool things including dramatic wall murals with bottlecaps. Bottlecaps cant be recycled so this takes them out of the landfill waste stream
Portable solar cook kit and a solar event kit. The cook kit is very easy to use and students can bake apples, hot dogs, even solar brownies with a recipe from the solar cook kit. You will need to provide a dark covered roasting pan to do cooking.
The solar event kit is a color 18 minute cd on solar cooking and how it works. It also shows how solar cooking is being used in Kenya which is suffering from severe deforestation on how these cookers help deal with this problem. There are also three color posters demonstrating the science of solar cooking and how to solar cook. There are also a number of solar recipes on the cd including those great solar brownies.
Great Lakes lesson plans Each county now has a set of copyright free lesson plans that meet Michigan Curriculum standards K-12. Michigan Green Schools Foundation bought The Great Lakes and My World with these broad range of lesson plans that can be used in many subject areas. This book was created by The Alliance for The Great Lakes.
Great Lakes color plant and animal cards. Each county now has access to a set of over 60 illustrated information cards. There is a color drawing on the front of each card and extensive information on the back. They lend themselves to science and art projects easily.
JANUARY ENERGY TIP: Vending Machines are energy guzzlers. Removing one lighted vending machine can save a school approximately 300 dollars a year. The new year is a good time to assess if a school can do without at least one.
Getting the Most from this Website
Most schools have some questions on how to get started and what kind of activities they can do under the Original 20 Points or the new broader categories under Public Act 301 of 2010. Go the FAQs on the tool bar to get most of your questions answered.
Another good resource is your county coordinator. We have provided a list of current county coordinators for the school year 2011-12. If your county does not have a coordinator, then contact Michigan Green School and we will assist you and make sure you receive the official designation for this year.
All in a day's work---Farms Intermediate students in Hartland work with GM Engineers to make duck nest boxes.
