Green Initiative

Allen Creek Elementary School has organized a Green Team which includes a Garden Club.  The Going Green committee, made up of PTSA members, teachers, students and custodial staff, identifies green initiatives at Allen Creek and works to promote green activities.

• Recycling:  paper, milk cartons, plastic and cardboard
• Garden planted: the students will lead the upkeep of the garden
• Paper use: reduced paper usage throughout the building

Jefferson Road School conserves and reuses whenever possible:

• Reuse paper, using both sides of copy paper
• Find uses for all paper, even old construction paper
• Reserve high quality paper only for high quality work
• Building wide collection of plastic
• Students use reusable water bottles
• Recycle print cartridges
• Adults recycle glass and cans
• Environmental study through our Nature Center, study ducks who next, have 3-sisters garden
• Collect cafeteria trays
• Recycle milk containers
• Each classroom has one or two students who regularly collect the recycling from their room and bring it to the large recycling area in the building (mainly paper recycling). There are also students who collect from the other areas of the building (special areas, main office, etc) and do the same. 

"Going Green" initiatives at MCE:

• Recycling milk cartons and juice boxes
• Recycling containers throughout the school for teachers and students
• Community Service projects like Helping Hands bottle and can collection where money raised goes to Water for Sudan and Hope for Haiti
• Helping Hands also collects plastic bottle caps for recycling
• Used clothing, coats and mitten drives
• Used book drives

Going Green at Park Road means:

• Recycling paper, milk cups and glue sticks
• Beginning a new initiative to recycle cans and bottles and donating the proceeds to a worthy cause, possibly including the community in this project
• Green Team met with art teacher, Beth Hills and learned about logos.  Members designed a logo for the club
• Made bows for gift packages with instructor, Jen Bove, using used magazines cut into strips
• Field trip to Monroe County Recycling Center with a 90 minute educational lecture and tour by Tina Stevens.
• Green Team members assisted at the Park Road Creativity Fair – a family evening event.
• Green Team members have classroom assignments for twice weekly recycling throughout the building.
• Green Team members made plastic chain pulls out of #6 plastic.
• Harley School Green Team advisor and several students presented what their school does for  “going green” during a lunch meeting.
• Proposed a waste-free lunch/snack program for Park Road School using reusable food containers, drink containers, napkins and utensils.
• Green Team members watched a video on “Upcycling” by the TerraCycle Company.
• Student representatives from the Green Team are assigned to specific classrooms to transport recycled materials to the appropriate place, such as the drop box on the back of the stage for paper. They set up a schedule with the teacher/class for pick-up two times a week. Sometimes we use those same students and student council reps to be the communicators from committee/team meetings back to students in classrooms.

Going Green with Technology:

• Use of interactive response systems to assess students
• Online textbooks
• Parent Portal (eliminating mailing 5 week reports)
• Use of dittos on the Smart Board, posting to Web
• Summer mailing reduced and placed on Web (supply lists, reading lists, course of studies)
• Discontinuation of daily printing TIP sheet by using Infinite Campus
• Communicate via website instead of paper (morning announcements, morning announcements archives, e-messaging for important messages)
• The PTSA communicates with parents via the Weekly e-newsletter instead of through paper communications.   

Going Green - Students:

• Students generated projects educating other students on recycling and other environmentally responsible behaviors
• Students launched the bottle cap collection to be recycled by Aveda. They created containers and informational posters for the cafeteria
• Recycling program (5 cent refundable deposit, capri sun pouches, milk and bottle caps, non-refundable bottles/cans)
• During the industrial revolution unit, students write about the benefits of recycling and reducing. They also read poems about it. They research and name specific things that Americans are doing to fight the environmental problems that result from industry (over producing too many goods, consumerism and pollution)

Going Green - Faculty:

• Post assignments and handouts on website
• Using back of handouts (for checking for understanding) instead of another piece of paper
• Using the Smart Board in an interactive fashion, alleviating the use of handouts
• Use of email to communicate internally
• Encourage use of reusable water bottles
• Encourage and increase lesson plans completed electronically
• Recycling boxes in classrooms and hallways
• Educating students within their content area about being environmentally responsible

Going Green - PTSA & Community:

• Community Service Club, Parent volunteers and students maintain an organic farm and garden with composting
• Eagle Scout Project - plant trees and greenery
• Imagine It Program - recycling toner, recycling cell phones, small electronics
• Purchased recycling containers shaped like a bottle (used in halls, cafeteria)

The Calkins Road Middle School environmental actions include:

• Environmental club collects and sorts CRMS paper and plastic every Thursday
• Yellow and Purple teams make green energy books based on research into renewable energy resources
• Orange team has monthly environmental themes - students discuss ways to be more environmentally friendly
• Yellow team created decorative recycling boxes out of old copy paper boxes and distributed them to the entire school
• All students recycle and donate gently used school supplies to needy kids in the city of Rochester
• Maroon team planted a new garden on the north side of the school
• Eighth graders do a research project on the topic of renewable energy.  Individual students select a renewable energy technology and share what they’ve learned with their classmates
• Weekly announcements providing students with tips on being environmentally responsible are provided on the Morning Show
• Paper that has only been printed on only one side will not be discarded after use , but rather have its blank side available for additional purposes and copies.  
• Plastic recycling facilities do not accept or recycle plastic bottle caps.  The CRMS eighth grade Yellow Team has partnered with Aveda to recycle CRMS plastic bottle caps.  Since September the Yellow team has managed to recycle forty gallons of plastic bottle caps
• The Art department has instituted electronic hand-in folders for the units that involve Photoshop and Illustrator.  Instead of printing the projects for grading, students “hand them in” to a electronic folder.  Also, recycled materials and “scraps” left over from previous projects are utilized in student art projects.

Sutherland High School Goes Green by:

• Building homecoming floats with recycled materials
• Instructing both staff and students on proper recycling so recycled collection is not contaminated with unacceptable items
• Designing recycle containers for "Paper Only" to be distributed throughout the building
• Providing the 2010-2011 Parent Student Handbook online instead of printing
• Collecting extra paper to be recycled into notepads
• Encouraging students to take the bus to school, biking or walking instead of driving separately, especially if they are not going directly to work at the end of the school day
• Starting an eco-friendly fashion club to make jewelry and clothes from unwanted clothes and jewelry with the proceeds from sale of these items going to Cinderella's Closet
• Faculty and staff collected discarded school supplies that were left after the last day of school  - 2009 - 2010. Students could claim their school supplies until August 18.  Unclaimed supplies filled four big boxes and were donated to East High School where they will be recycled and reused.
• Fundraiser by Environmental Club to buy more recycle boxes/bins
• Fashion Club collecting clothes for the Fairy Godmother program
• Homecoming floats mostly made from recycled material
• Handbooks available online – no longer printed and mailed

Mendon High School environmental actions:

• MHS Environmental club has taken an active role in promoting student and staff use of various recycling opportunities that exist in our school
• End of school locker cleanout produced a record amount of unwanted but still usable school supplies (binders, pens, pencils, etc) which were then delivered to Green Seed, a local organization who distributes to Rochester City School students.
• Mendon High 11th and 12th graders sampled water from Seneca Lake, Mendon Ponds and powder Mill Park to assess water quality
• Donation of unclaimed clothing to Volunteers of America (after efforts to find owners)

General reduction in use of paper:

• Put codes back on copiers to reduce unauthorized use of our machines.
• Teachers becoming more engaged in use of various computer technologies for the purpose of communication, assignment distribution, and collection of student work. Examples include:  
  
  • TurnItIn (Our English teachers rarely collect printed written work anymore. Use in other disciplines has now begun as well.)
  • Teacher Website Use
  • Use of Infinite Campus Messenger functionality or other methods to do group emailing/communication
  • Use of Quia online service for testing and practice in World Languages
  • Use of Castle Learning for online practice/homework in Core Areas
  • Increasing practice of using visuals in class and then posting them on the website.
  • Counseling Office doing the majority of college application work as a paperless online process, including most teacher recommendations. We currently process approximately 1500 applications annually. At an average of 10 pieces of paper per application, this is an important area of reduced paper use.
  • SharePoint and Moodle online software used for paperless student collaboration and project work.
  • Use of Parent/Student portal for access to grades has eliminated previous periodic printing of grade sheets.
  • Where sufficient classroom computers are available, notes and outlines are being provided online. Students take lecture notes and save them electronically.
• Recycling of tri-fold boards used in student projects.
• Various other individual teacher efforts to reduce unnecessary coping, printing, and other paper use.
• Use of 2-sided printing as default on many printers, such as the printer used by students in the library.
• Re-use of paper that has already been used to print on just one side.
• Use of individual whiteboards in classrooms
• Use of display whiteboards to advertise club events/activities.
• Use of laminated materials in instruction, thus allowing reuse.

MHS Environmental Club Activity:

• Active promotion of the recycling options offered in the school.
• Collection of slightly used school supplies that are then recycled in RCSD.
• Display on Earth Day using recycled products and highlighting commercial sources of products that are made from recycled materials.
• Promotion of student engagement in “Earth Hour”, which is an event sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund. Focus is on turning off non-essential electricity for one hour.
• Providing recommendations to school and custodial leadership that has helped to improve student and staff access to recycling.
• Active collection of printer cartridges and recycling them.