I'm Starting an Environmental Club! (Episode 1)

Hugging trees is almost
as fun as
environmental education.

Hi everyone, this is GEEKs cofounder Katie M-T, bringing you the first post in the "I'm Starting an Environmental Club!" series! These posts will follow my adventures over the next few months as I start an Earth Group at my local middle school. Hopefully in a few weeks I'll be telling you all about how wildly successful the group is, but for now I'm just in the planning stages.

Before I start, you should know that if you don't have the time to read the whole story, you can always skip to the bottom of the post to find out what I've learned so far!

Why I'm Doing This

My class at Conserve School

So, it all started last fall when I went to Conserve School, an environmentally-focused semester boarding school in Wisconsin. The students and teachers there were really enthusiastic about sharing their love for the outdoors and educating others about environmental stewardship. Their stories inspired me to get into environmental education myself when I went back home to Minnesota.

Roseville Area Middle School

Finding a Location
When I got back I wanted to start a project right away, but I have to admit it seemed a little overwhelming. Fortunately, I had really helpful guidance from a lot of other people- my high school Earth Group, Conserve School, and other environmental educators I know. For a few weeks I looked at several possible strategies and locations for a club before deciding on Roseville Area Middle School, where I'd been a student for two years.

Not all meetings are like this!

Planning
To start the ball rolling I emailed one of the science teachers at RAMS who ran an environmental club a few years ago. It was great to have someone eager to help with both planning the club and advising it. She got approval for the club from the activities director at the school, and we had a meeting to start planning. Meetings get a bad rap- this one was really helpful. In just a few minutes one afternoon we figured out the start date, what activities the club would do (we'll start with making green cleaning supplies and doing a simple energy audit), and what needed to be done to make everything work.

If I had a megaphone,
I would use it a lot

Making Everything Work
That's what I'm doing right now- making things work. It turns out that there's a lot to do before the club's first meeting at the end of February. Most importantly, I'm writing flyers and announcements to advertise the club at RAMS. I'm also recruiting volunteers from the high school to help out- the best strategy for that is reminding them of how good volunteer hours look on college applications. There is also planning what the club's first project will be, what events the club might attend, what organizations might want to support the club, and how to get more students interested in joining after the club starts. Fortunately, the fact that I'm starting an environmental club is exciting enough to make all the tasks fun and worthwhile.

What I Learned

It's okay to rely on
other people!

What did I learn in this first installment of "I'm Starting an Environmental Club"? Drumroll, please... I learned that I don't need to know everything myself! 
I've never started a club before, and I don't even know all that much about environmental education. But fortunately, there are a lot of people who actually do know what they're talking about. All I need to do is find those people, send a few emails, put in some simple work, and show up. I'm not going to say it's easy, but I know that anybody can do it!


Thanks for reading, and check back soon for another action-packed story from "I'm Starting an Environmental Club!"

Get Kids Involved in Citizen Science!

What better way is there to get kids interested in environmental science than to let them participate in real environmental science projects? There are lots of surprisingly simple and easy ways to get kids- or yourself- involved.

The National Wildlife Federation promotes some great opportunities on their Citizen Science Programs page here, with projects on topics including frogs, birds, astrology, fireflies and flowers.

The National Phenology Network lets ordinary people participate in a nationwide science program. The founders of GEEKs participated in the NPN project while at Conserve School, and it was a great experience to be part of such a big project just by spending some extra time outside. People of all ages can participate by recording simple observations about their local environments (we recorded things like how many squirrels we saw), and the NPN collects and organizes the observations. The data the NPN collects helps citizens and scientists alike understand how plant and animal behavior is affected by environmental change, and how to make environmentally responsible decisions. Find the NPN website here!

The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a snapshot of where the birds are across the continent. The 2012 event will be February 17-20. No experience is required- it's an easy and fun project that also helps the birds, and anyone can participate. Check out their website here, and click "How to Participate" to get involved!

Lesson Plan: "Snowflake Bentley" by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

Objective of lesson plan: Teach kids about some interesting properties of snow and help them to connect with the book.

Target age group: 5-9