Green Leader Achievement Unit (AU) Menu Activity
General Information
June 26, 2015
Summary
Thank you for your interest in pursuing Achievement Units (AUs) for work as a Green Leader at your
school. This document provides a description of the mandatory and optional work, the time
commitment required, the criteria and requirements, additional information approved by the Joint
Oversight Committee (JOC) as part of the proposal, the application form and the feedback form.
The program is designed to align with the Maryland Green Schools Award Program of the Maryland
Association of Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE). This provides a framework, and helps
schools develop strong applications should they decide to pursue the award.
This is a new Menu Activity and thus details are being worked out as we go. If you have questions or
suggestions to make this effort a success, I welcome them.
Key info:
School year 2015-16
Number of AUs Minimum of 1 and up to 4
The number of AUs awarded will depend on the successful completion of this work
Coordinator Joanna Pi-Sunyer, green schools coordinator
jpi-sunyer@bcps.k12.md.us
Application date Sept 30, 2015 to Joanna via email
Use application form at end of this document
Documentation
submission dates
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1st quarter by Nov 19
2nd quarter by Jan 29
3rd quarter by Apr 15
4th quarter by Jun 15
Coordinator will provide feedback within 30 days
Use feedback form at end of this document
Description
There is increasing evidence that school-wide involvement in greening and sustainability activities,
practices and education are beneficial to students, teachers and staff. These benefits include increased
engagement among students and staff; higher achievement on statewide tests; compliance with
Maryland’s Environmental Literacy Standards; meeting the sustainability goals of the Educational
Specifications and the Design Standards (which are guiding school renovations in the 21st Century
Schools Plan); and increasing awareness of students about their role in the environment.
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Many teachers are actively engaged in greening work. Examples include: teachers have led the effort at
most of the 26 schools who have earned the MAEOE Green Schools Award; one hundred fourteen
schools have received greening grants from the City’s Office of Sustainability over the last five years; and
many teachers are leading recycling, energy conservation and gardening efforts, often by advising
environmental, outdoor or green teams of students.
The Green Leader Menu Option will be awarded to a teacher who leads these efforts. The number of
credits awarded will vary depending on the work completed, with a minimum of 1 credit and a
maximum of 4 credits.
Green Leader MUST do this activity – 1 AU (mandatory):
1. Be the point person at school for greening, sustainability and environmental issues. Duties include:
 Inform all students and staff up to four times per year of your role via newsletter, email, posters,
morning or afternoon announcements, etc.
 Coordinate and facilitate at least two community meetings or workshops per year to share
opportunities for school greening with students, staff and community members, with at least 10
participants each
 Meet with principal and/or assistant principal at least twice per year to review sustainability and
greening strategies or plans
 Share information and resources provided by City Schools’ Green School Coordinator, the
Baltimore Office of Sustainability and other local, state or national entities with school
community
 Answer questions for students, teachers and staff, e.g. what items are recyclable, provide
referrals for student outdoor lab experiences, identify possible project resources
 Advocate for green practices, e.g. minimizing paper use through double-sided printing, reducing
energy use through use of natural light, etc.
Green Leader MAY do these additional activities (optional):
The teacher may complete none, one or several of the activities below to earn additional credits.
Credits may only be earned in one activity area if duplication of activities occurs. The maximum number
of additional credits that may be earned is 2.
2. Implement a sustainability grant by applying in the fall of the school year for a Green, Healthy, Smart
Challenge Grant from the Baltimore City Office of Sustainability and/or an Energy Grant from the
Baltimore Energy Challenge – 2 AUs. Work may include, but is not limited to:
 Develop project idea with at least 5 students
 Gain principal support and approval for project
 Write application with students
 Implement project with students
 Write grant report including summary of expenditures and inclusion of receipts
 With students, prepare poster presentation and participate in GreenScape (spring celebration of
school greening)
Examples include:
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4th and 5th graders created energy conservation story books to read to younger students,
and created posters to spread the message to the school.
9th-12th grade students made their own recycled paper note cards from paper collected at
school, sold them and also visited an environmental education center
Elementary school students built and maintained an herb garden, harvested herbs for use in
a student cooking project.
6th graders studied recycling and made a sculpture for the school lobby from recycled
materials; students repaired several raised beds and grew herbs.
3rd, 4th and 5th grade students made posters about composting in the cafeteria, planted a
“living wall” in the lobby and measured indoor air quality
7th and 8th graders conducted an energy audit of their school, investigated energy sources
and educated school about energy conservation
5th grade students investigated solar tubes, 1st graders decorated trash and recycling bins,
Green Team Ambassadors (various ages) presented to 300 students about recycling
9th grade students focused on litter and water quality; they painted a storm drain, planted
32 trees, made a Public Service Announcement, passed out flyers, and picked up trash.
3. Lead effort to earn the Maryland Green School Award from the Maryland Association for
Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE) – 2 AUs.
NOTE: Earning the award is not required for receipt of AU credits, since developing a successful
application takes at least two years
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Set up Weebly electronic application (free website template used by MAEOE)
Upload documentation to Weebly electronic application
Submit intent to apply
Hold at least one Green Team meeting per semester with students, staff and community
members
Hold at least two meetings with school principal and/or assistant principal to discuss green
goals, action items and application progress
Implement green practices within school
Document practices within the school
Share professional development opportunities with teachers and staff
Recruit and manage external partnerships, e.g. a nonprofit helping build a garden, a
neighborhood association providing materials, a public entity hosting an outdoor lab experience
Examples of successful City Schools applications may be viewed at
http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/Page/25709
4. Advise a group of students interested in environmental, greening and sustainability issues (such as
the Green Team or the Environment Club) – 1 AU. Activities may include but are not limited to:
 Convene the group at least six times per year
 Help students set the priorities and goals for the year
 Publicize work of the club to the full school, e.g. presentations, newsletters, posters, website,
email blast, etc.
 Promote student leadership or coordinate specific leadership development components
 Team or Club completes at least one distinct project
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Lead an outing with students to explore, look at and/or interact with a natural place, e.g. a park,
a conservatory, an office with green practices
5. Develop a green planning committee of teachers and staff to create, maintain, or modify a
comprehensive school greening plan – 1 AU. Activities may include, but are not limited to:
 Convene planning committee at least six times per year
 Compile meeting minutes and action items
 Implement, or cause to be implemented, the action items
 Report to committee, school leadership and students (including Green Team/Environment Club,
student leadership body, and entire school)
6. Complete items from the MAEOE Green School application
NOTE: additional details for these items can be found in the MAEOE Application Guide at
http://maeoe.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/2014-15GreenSchoolsApplicationGuide-Final.pdf
There will be a 2015-16 link in early September 2015.
NOTE: As described above, the teacher may complete none, one or several of the activities below.
AUs may only be earned in one activity area if duplication of activities occurs.
6.1. Curriculum and instruction – 1 AU. Activities may include, but are not limited to:
 Obtain environmental issue instruction (learning modules, lesson plans, curricula) for at
least every grade level in elementary or middle school, or in at least four subjects for high
school
 Share instruction with teachers for use in their classrooms at staff meetings, individual
meetings, email, professional development days, etc.
 Document that instruction is being used
6.2. Professional development –1 AU. Activities may include, but are not limited to:
 Arrange for and promote environmentally-related professional development opportunities
for teachers and school leaders
 Research relevant opportunities for teachers and staff, such as inviting providers to school
to train teachers and/or staff and/or finding off-site providers that offer classes or courses
 Promote opportunities at staff meetings, in school-wide communications, and one-on-one
 Work with staff and school leadership to ensure that at least 10% of teachers participate in
at least one opportunity
6.3. School-wide environmental behavior change – 1 AU. Activities may include, but are not limited
to:
 Promote use of electronic newsletters and use of text and email messages to parents
 Institute double-sided printing for 50% of the printers in the building
 Promote more energy efficient lighting (use of daylight, use of task lighting, de-lamping,
turning off lights, etc.)
 Document the efforts
 Institute a nonstudent-led recycling program, energy conservation program, green cleaning
program, outdoor classroom or nature play space, etc. (If activities are student-led, see
below)
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6.4. Celebration or event, such as Earth Hour in March, Earth Day in April, etc.– 1 AU. Activities may
include, but are not limited to:
 Establish goals of the event, involvement of which teachers and students, how integrated
to curriculum
 Plan event logistics
 Implement event
 Evaluate success of the event
 Impact at least one grade
6.5. Student-driven sustainability practices
NOTE: As described above, the teacher may complete none, one or several of the activities below.
AUs may only be earned in one activity area if duplication of activities occurs.
6.5.1. Water conservation and/or pollution prevention – 1AU. Activities may include, but are
not limited to:
 Students research, plant and monitor rain gardens or conservation landscaping
 Students research, install and use rain barrels
 Students create and hang signs near school sinks to encourage conservation and
throughout school to educate students and staff about storm water runoff
 Students make a display or diorama to demonstrate water conservation and pollution
prevention
 Student help design and participate in a hands on experiment about water
conservation and pollution prevention
6.5.2. Energy conservation – 1AU. Activities may include, but are not limited to:
 Students label light switches throughout school to encourage conservation
 Students conduct an energy audit of a portion of or the entire school
 Students plant trees so that in time they provide shade for the school
 Students form an energy patrol to weekly monitor classrooms, offices and school and
encourage conservation, e.g. lights and electronics off when not in use; turning
window air conditioners off, reporting hot rooms to facilities staff rather than opening
windows
 Students help install power strips to turn off computers and other electronics in the
evenings, weekends and holidays
6.5.3. Solid waste reduction – 1AU. Activities may include, but are not limited to:
 Students educate the school about what can and cannot be recycled
 Students regularly monitor, track and/or manage recycling bins
 Students organize drives to recycle ink cartridges, cell phones, etc.
 Students assist with compost program in cafeteria
 Students assist with carton recycling program in cafeteria
6.5.4. Habitat restoration – 1AU. Activities may include, but are not limited to:
 Students plant or tend a native plant garden
 Students plant trees or native plants
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Students install and monitor bird, bat or butterfly boxes (
Students maintain and use schoolyard habitat, e.g. a garden to attract butterflies, a
bioretention pond to collect rain water, a native species garden that does not need to
be watered
Students meet with community partners and present to school leaders, students and
area community association to acquire support and report on work completed
6.5.5. Structures for environmental learning – 1AU. Activities may include, but are not limited
to:
 Students regularly hold class in an outdoor classroom during the school day
 Students help maintain an outdoor classroom through cleaning, weeding, etc.
 Students grow food in gardens at school
 Students create outdoor artwork for schoolyard and/or outdoor classroom
 Students help build, or create signage for and promote use of, a nature trail around
their schoolyard
6.5.6. Responsible transportation – 1AU. Activities may include, but are not limited to:
 Students survey, analyze and implement carbon-reducing actions to improve school
transportation issues, e.g. carpooling, installation and use of bike racks, no idling in
carpool lines
 Students educate school and community about hazards of car and bus idling, by
posting signs, distributing fliers
 Students routinely go on walking field trips, i.e. they walk to a location off-site
6.5.7. Healthy school environment – 1 AU. Activities may include, but are not limited to:
 Students make, use and distribute non-toxic or green cleaning products for classrooms
and home
 Students plant, care for and maintain a host of indoor plants
 Students create a campaign to encourage healthy eating choices, e.g. posters, song,
rap, or skit
 Students organize and implement a community clean-up that involves at least 10% of
the student body
6.6. Community partnerships, awards and special recognition – 1AU. Activities may include, but are
not limited to:
 Community partnerships: Ongoing, sustained partnerships, where partners are active in the
school and the school is active in the community
 Awards and special recognition: The school or students have received awards or special
recognition, or received grant awards or in-kind services from public or private entities
7. Outdoor Club: connecting students to nature – 1 AU per semester. Activities may include, but are
not limited to:
 Recruit at least 15 students to join a outdoor/nature club
 Document their growth in outdoor knowledge and skills using pre and post assessments
 Take students on at least 4 outings into nature consisting of at least two of the following:
hiking, canoeing or kayaking, bicycling, sailing, visiting an arboretum or conservatory, bird
watching, camping
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Have students complete reflections about their interaction with nature
Present each trip to school, e.g. bulletin board, school meetings, website
8. Another activity, to be determined and approved
Time Commitment
The time commitment for each AU awarded will equal approximately 15 hours of work. Those 15 hours
may be completed over the course of a full school year, or over a shorter time period. Documentation
provided must indicate the level of effort and the number of hours expended. Some activities can vary
in their depth – for example, setting up a schoolyard garden may take dozens of hours each year, while
utilizing an existing garden might take many fewer hours.
Criteria and Requirements
Application, Documentation and Feedback
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Submit application by September 30 to Joanna Pi-Sunyer, green schools coordinator (see
below), which includes approval signature from principal.
No more than 3 teachers at one school may apply for and receive credits.
Documentation format:
o All work must be documented via a dedicated green school website used for the MAEOE
Green Schools Award application (using the Weebly or a comparable template), even if the
school is not applying for the award.
o If more than one teacher at a school is applying for credits, work must be clearly attributed
to each teacher so credits may be allocated fairly.
o If a school already has an active Weebly site, new work must be clearly dated so credits may
be allocated fairly.
Documentation should be thorough and clearly explained/identified and may include:
o Lesson plans and curricula, labeled with teacher name, grade, evidence of its use, and a
description of how the environment is a context for learning
o Professional development agendas, lesson plans, dates of completion, evidence of teacher
participation, grades taught by teachers, length of the PD, and provider information
o Photographs of the green practices being implemented, accompanied by explanatory
captions of date, activity, grade level of students, etc.
o Photographs of students, staff and/or partners actively implementing green practices,
accompanied by explanatory captions of date, activity, grade level of students, etc.
o Email or other correspondence with staff, partners or others
o Newspaper or newsletter articles
o Awards
o Agendas/plans/programs for meetings and events
o Student work and reflections
Green School Coordinator review:
o Four times each school year the teacher must email a link to the Weebly site so progress
may be reviewed. Submission dates during the 2015-16 school year are:
 1st quarter by Nov 19
 2nd quarter by Jan 29
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 3rd quarter by Apr 15
 4th quarter by Jun 15
Within 30 days, the Coordinator will respond using the feedback form (attached) indicating
“on track/off track/more information needed” (for the first three quarters) or
“approved/denied/more information needed” (for the last quarter).
Teachers will be invited to join a shared Green Leader electronic folder to share information,
resources and questions.
Evaluation
The Office of Organizational Development in Human Capital will conduct an evaluation to determine the
effectiveness and value of the Green Leader AU Menu Option. The level of evaluation will vary
depending on the number of AUs, as follows:
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Additional information from the AU proposal to the Joint Governing Panel (JGP)
Return on Investment
Investing in our teachers to be Green Leaders at their schools has multiple positive returns, including:
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Improved student learning and engagement.
o City Schools is working to implement the Maryland Environmental Literacy Standards (EL
Standards, summary attached), a graduation requirement for seniors beginning in 2015.
The Office of Teaching and Learning is developing lesson modules for use at schools.
Given the decentralized model of City Schools, individual schools will need to use those
modules or ones developed by other entities. Teachers can use the EL Standards to
meet the Maryland College and Career Ready Standards and the upcoming Next
Generation Science Standards.
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“Green” lessons are often hands-on and engaging. When students get outside and grow
plants, sail on the Chesapeake Bay, or plant bay grasses, or when they research energy,
install solar panels, or write about the effects of littering, they are making connections
between in-class learning and the real world.
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There is a growing body of research about the benefits of environmental education.
Examples include:
 Test scores rose at schools that were certified “green” by the Maryland
Association of Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE). See the
attached unpublished paper: A Study of Maryland Green Schools and Student
Academic Achievement by Clavijo et al.
 MAEOE has compiled a summary of research here: http://maeoe.org/benefitsof-environmental-education-2/
 Nature Explore, a nonprofit organization focused on nature-themed outdoor
playspaces, has compiled research, some of which is attached.
Positive connections between greener school buildings and student and occupant outcomes:
o The US Green Building Council’s Center for Green Schools describes the many benefits
of operating a building in a sustainable fashion. See
http://www.centerforgreenschools.org/main-nav/k-12/what.aspx
o The National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities report entitled Do School Facilities
Affect Academic Outcomes? finds correlations between poor indoor air quality and
student absenteeism.
http://www.mphaweb.org/documents/DoSchoolFacilitiesAffectAcademicOutcomes.pdf
Capacity of Participants
All teachers in all grade bands and in all subject areas are eligible to apply for and receive these credits.
There is no limit on the number of teachers who may apply for the credits.
Currently, many teachers are already actively engaged in greening work. For example, teachers at 26
schools led the effort to earn the Green Schools Award from the Maryland Association of Environmental
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and Outdoor Education (MAEOE); 114 schools have applied for and received one or more Green,
Healthy, Smart Challenge grants since 2010 (with an average of 53 schools annually in 2012-2015); and
many teachers are leading recycling, energy conservation, and gardening work.
Attachments and References
1) Maryland Environmental Literacy Standards.
a. See http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/msde/programs/environment/
b. See also http://news.maryland.gov/msde/environmentalliteracy/
2) MAEOE Green School Award information
a. MAEOE’s 2014-15 Green Schools Application Guide http://maeoe.org/wpcontent/uploads/2014/06/2014-15GreenSchoolsApplicationGuide-Final.pdf
b. Summary of the application, as described by the Baltimore City Office of Sustainability,
which provides support to City Schools that are applying.
http://baltimoresustainability.org/sites/baltimoresustainability.org/files/MDGS%202015
%20presentation.pdf
c. Links to recent City Schools electronic applications to MAEOE.
http://www.baltimorecityschools.org/Page/25709
d. Information on the impact on student learning at schools with the MAEOE Green
School Award, including A Study of Maryland Green Schools and Student
Academic Achievement by Clavijo et al and The Influence of a Statewide Green
School Initiative on Student Achievement in K–12 Classrooms by Ghent, TrauthNare, Dell and Haines.
http://maeoe.org/statistics/
3) The City Schools Sustainability and Greening web pages may be found at
www.baltimorecityschools.org/sustainability (external site), and
www.baltimorecityschools.org/internal_sustainability (City Schools Inside). Also, the Recycling
Toolkit is at www.baltimorecityschools.org/recycling and gives an idea of the roles and
responsibilities of running a successful program, including sample lesson plans.
4) Research from Nature Explore (www.natureexplore.org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to
designing, creating, and supporting outdoor nature play spaces at schools serving pre-school
and elementary-aged students. While City Schools does not have any official Nature Explore
outdoor classrooms, teachers at some of our schools are developing modified versions on their
own or with partner organizations.
a. Meeting National Education Standards in Your Nature Explore Classroom
b. Nature Benefits
c. Seeds of Learning: Young Children Develop Important Skills Through Their Gardening
Activities at a Midwestern Early Education Program
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Green Leader Achievement Unit Application
Teacher name
School name and number
School year
Teach which grade(s)
Teach which subject(s)
Teacher signature
Date of submission
Pursuing these optional credits
(if applicable):
optional credit (describe)
optional credit (describe)
optional credit (describe)
Principal name
Principal approval signature
Date
Narrative (150 words max) explaining goals for the year:
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Green Leader Achievement Unit Feedback
Teacher name
School name and number
School year
Date of submission and review
Website
1st Qtr
2nd Qtr
3rd Qtr
4th Qtr
Mandatory credit
Pursuing these optional credits (if
applicable):
optional credit (describe)
optional credit (describe)
optional credit (describe)
* For quarters 1-3 indicate “On Track/Off Track/More Information Needed”
* For quarter 4 indicate “Approved/Denied/More Information Needed”
Notes:
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