National Geographic Challenges Schools To 'Find Your Footprint' And Go Green

In a clear role role reversal, kids across the country are schooling their teachers and communities about reducing waste.

These students have come up with plans to cut down their schools' footprints, with ideas ranging from a waste-free day in the cafeteria to a more eco-friendly cleanup routine in art class.

The schools are competing by earning online votes in order to win five interactive whiteboards, among other prizes, sponsored by National Geographic and Proctor & Gamble.

At The Park School in Massachusetts, a fourth-grade class came up with the Catalog Canceling Challenge, creating a video with instructions on how to cancel unwanted sales catalog in an effort to save trees.

It's become a national effort including kids in 21 states who have canceled 53,000 catalogs, Wicked Local reports. Teacher Ted Wells even shaved his head as a reward.

WATCH:

Rutledge Hall in Illinois shot a kid-friendly documentary to describe the toll pollution takes on oceans, detailing the harm it can cause animals.

"All of these were eaten by birds, like a toothbrush, cigarette lighter, bottle caps, old toys and even other plastics we couldn't even identify. Yuck!"

The Rutledge Hall students are even meeting with the mayor to work on banning plastic water bottles.

"We know that there are financial considerations that we don't completely understand, but we also know that sometimes kids can see solutions to problems better than adults can."

WATCH:

Online voting is open until March 15.

Comments

[Clare53]

03:34 PM on 03/05/2011

"Student grow ideas to green their schools."

Green is not a verb.

[CocoLopez]

08:53 AM on 03/05/2011

Yet students are still somehow scoring extremely low on biology proficiency tests. Maybe if we actually educated children in science instead of propagandizing them we could turn this country around.

[jimstaro]

08:49 AM on 03/05/2011

Want reality and answers, always go to the intelligent among us, the kids!! Especially in these last decades as the mentality of the adult population has dropped so far and continues, sadly, for far to many!!

[abbienormal]

08:28 AM on 03/05/2011

It's good that the school administrations are supporting such creative thinking.

[TicTucTo]

07:14 AM on 03/05/2011

It sickens me when I see people throw trash out of their car windows, so I'm glad that people somewhere are teaching kids that that kind of behavior is just downright unacceptable. While it may not fix the economy, education like this is important too!

[farmerlady]

05:25 AM on 03/05/2011

It's too bad an affordable college education is completely out of reach for these little guys. In fact, it's a travesty.

[pinkibus]

03:38 AM on 03/05/2011

And a child shall lead them.

[IrishEyes21]

12:15 AM on 03/05/2011

This is fantastic! I love when kids learn how to not be wasteful consumers and that going green is not a lot of work or effort. I'm already teaching my 3 year old and she has been "yelling" at her babysitter to recycle more...

I know around where I live one of the schools worked with a botanist to plant a native plant garden at the school - to promote pollinators. They now have whole lessons devoted to the garden. Another school put in a sediment plant garden in a ditch near the school - pretty and funtional! And the kids get so excited when they accomplish one of the projects!! Its so much fun to watch how excited they are.

[avg american]

07:52 PM on 03/04/2011

Great Job, kids!

[deans2cents]

07:26 PM on 03/04/2011

Green the schools.......does anyone have any idea how much garbage and stuff is tossed out at a school each day and not recycled...even the schools that sy they are GREEN.....the lunch plastic alone is enough to kill a small nation. And. The teachers are the worst with their plastic water bottles...and OCD attitude that every thing must be laminated that a child does before it can be hung out in the hallway.....why does little Johnny and susie and ralphs colored in picture of a frog need to last on this earth for 3000 year in laminated plastic? We could cut suburban school budgets by hundreds of ousands if they unplugged the laminator and the copy machine!

[IrishEyes21]

12:16 AM on 03/05/2011

that could be a project - doing an audit of the schools waste - talk about a math project! And then figuring out how to reduce the waste - another project!

I'm a big fan of pratical projects for kids. I feel like they get more when they accomplish an actual goal instead of a pretend one.

[Vipul Dharia]

04:47 PM on 03/04/2011

The good grades doesn't means that you are bright or school is good. I think that student interest matters much. The student intereested in one subject more than all the subject. After all it experience and how good at you matters? Howerver the general education necessary to understand the world better and to live the life. It is the natural talent matters most than anything else. I saw some of the childern like music or some like Biology. It is the natural talent in the subject is the matters most. It is the main reasons that Americas every major treated equally. I mean that if they have the natural talent then they are wealthy.

[cardholder]

07:01 PM on 03/04/2011

Vipul,
I agree. The most important thing is the student's interest. I think the natural talent comes from the student's enthusiasm .

[Christopher Bowen]

01:02 PM on 03/04/2011

Great article, great program, great kids. Keep in mind that this sort of real world, tangible learning happens less and less in classrooms across the country because we are working so hard to spit out test takers who leave with less creativity and less critical thinking skills. This is so much better than schooling kids on a shallow pool of knowledge to prepare for a limited test.

Chris Bowen
http://teacher2teacher.lacoe.edu/a-fresh-dreamer.aspx

[tnlcallen]

02:14 PM on 03/04/2011

This has less to do with critical thinking skills and more to do with good old fashioned brainwashing.

[Christopher Bowen]

02:28 PM on 03/04/2011

How so? I mean there should always be some suspicion when you're dealing with corporations and kids, but the idea seems sound.

[WESTistheman]

01:31 AM on 03/05/2011

I am with you, just propaganda and positive affirmations for a giant hoax. And we wonder why the kids are getting dumbed down in the schools? It is because they are being taught the Progressive propaganda instead of school work. Next they will sayto the little kids " good environmentalists also have good sex, so little Johnny and little Mary ( or Steve ), if oral sex feels good go home and do it ". Worry about math, history, english, science, and CIVICS while in the school, leave social issues for high school so they know BS when they see it.

[Olivia Lane]

08:08 AM on 03/04/2011

This is so awesome! Those Kids are inspiring us to cancel our catalogs.

[farmerlady]

05:25 AM on 03/05/2011

With the internet, who needs them?

[CocoLopez]

08:57 AM on 03/05/2011

Speak for yourself. I've been spankin' it to the bra section of the Sears catalog for 30 years and I ain't stoppin' 'cause of no meddlin' kids!