Welcome to the Michigan Green Schools Website
The growth of the Michigan Green Schools program continues to be amazing. During the school year 2009-10 we have added another six counties. Check our county contact page to see if your county is now included. The deadline for application for the upcoming academic year will be March 1, 2011. As always, each qualifying school will receive an official Michigan Green School certificate with our copyrighted logo.
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.
New 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.
At our June 15, 2010 County Coordinators Meeting each coordinator was provided a list of new educational support materials for your schools to use. Here are the new things added for 2010-11 school year along with our traditional favorite items.
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.
Rain Garden posters - These bright, colorful posters illustrate how to plant a rain garden. Rain gardens are planted to protect watersheds from toxic parking lot runoff with native Michigan plants. This would qualify for one of your 20 points for the upcoming school year.
Books - These are some of the new titles chosen to support the Michigan Green School program.
1. One Child, One Planet - a wonderful elementary level book beautifully illustrated on the importance of protecting the Earth by a Michigan author.
2. 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.
3. The Karner Blue Butterfly - This book is about a seriously endangered species found only in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario. Included in the information are the Michigan native plants that support the species and what we can do to protect the butterfly.
4. 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
5. The Last Polar Bear This book was written by renowned bear expert Jean Craighead George and is appropriate for eco reading visits in the elementary school media center.
6.Asian Carp This new up to date book addresses the serious issue of invasive species in our Great Lakes. This book is appropriate for grades 5 and up.
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. We wish to thank the Alliance for giving Michigan Green Schools a discount on this purchase.
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.
Flags
Michigan Green Schools Foundation has additional indoor outdoor flags available for those schools requesting them. This is the flag with the map of Michigan on it as seen in the upper right hand corner of the opening page of the webpage. These are 28 inches by 40 inches and are double sided. They have grommets for outdoor hanging. It should be noted that even an indoor outdoor flag will last a maximum of one year in outdoor conditions. The flags are $19.30 a unit. Please contact Michigan Green Schools or your local county coordinator.
Become a Green School and...
Thanks for visiting the Michigan Green School website. Here you'll find lots of resources to help you become a Green School. You'll find tons of great ideas for green activities throughout the site.
...help save the Great Lakes!
No other state in America is surrounded by as many of the Great Lakes as Michigan (we touch four out of five), and if we have the privilege to enjoy their beauty and recreational offerings, we equally have an obligation for stewardship to keep them clean and safe for wildlife and future generations. Schools can get involved in programs to monitor the health of our Great Lakes and learn how to "tread gently". To raise awareness to some of our endangered or threatened Michigan species, we're featuring several spotlight columns on these pages.
...help save energy!
One of the best ways to be green is to leave a small carbon footprint, and that includes reducing use of plastic bottles, installing energy-saving measures in the schools and at home, recycling paper and wrappers (and getting money for them, too!), and asking local officials to adopt environmentally sustainable practices. Find resources and more ideas on this site!
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 20 Points. 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 2010-11. 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.
There are lots of interesting and fun ways to meet the ten necessary points for Green School certification. We will be passing on new projects and ideas to you on a regular basis under the News and Activities tool bars. We also welcome ideas from participating schools and will post Green School Events. We have some exciting corporate sponsors who are going to provide some great rewards. Be sure and check the News section often.
Special Invitation to All Michigan Green Schools
Please send us your photos to post on the web page. Please remember it needs to be action pictures, your students doing environmental activities of any kind. We especially welcome new projects with imagination.
