2. www.smcoe.org
Agenda
Agenda Item Time Outcome
Introductions 5 Minutes Meet One Another
Event Overview 15 Minutes Shared Understanding of
Earth Day Events
Educator Guide 20 Minutes Learn About Extending Event
Information into the
Classroom
Above and Beyond Ideas 15 Minutes Learn About Ways to Build
the Event
Event Planning 20 Minutes Plan and Outline Your Event
and Next Steps
Resource Gathering 10 Minutes Gather Event Materials
3. Earth Day Fun Facts
• First Earth Day Celebrated in 1970
• Celebrated by 20 million Americans the first year
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Today more than 1 billion people celebrate
• 44th Earth Day Celebration
5. www.smcoe.org
County Event
• Event
Anytime in April
• Registration
http://bit.ly/edsignup
• Data Reporting
http://bit.ly/edparticipation
• Data Reporting Incentive
Jamba Juice Gift Cards
6. www.smcoe.org
Hosting a Successful Event
Key Things to Consider:
• Timeline
• Outreach
• Volunteers
• Materials
• Evaluation/Participation Tracking
7. www.smcoe.org
Event Timeline
Three Weeks Prior
• Determine Length of Event, Identify Ideal Participants, Special
Activity Possibilities
• Obtain Approval
• Register Event at http://bit.ly/edsignup
• Identify Incentives
Students, Teachers, Volunteers
• Begin Outreach and Recruiting
8. www.smcoe.org
Event Timeline
Two Weeks Prior
• Engage Parent, Teacher, and Student Groups as Appropriate
• Continue Outreach and Recruiting
• Obtain Materials as Needed
• Schedule special activities
• Consider Tracking Tool
One Week Prior
• Continue Outreach and Recruiting
• Obtain Materials as Needed
• Finalize Tracking Tool
10. www.smcoe.org
Outreach
General Outreach
• Increase awareness of the event
Parent Letters, E-mail, Website Announcements, Posters,
Robo-Callers
Engagement of Specific Groups
• Increase excitement for the event
• Implement above and beyond ideas
Staff Meetings, Student Council, PTA, School Site Council
11. www.smcoe.org
Volunteers
Outreach Support
• Volunteers to assist with hanging posters, robo-calls, talking to kids, parent
letters/e-mails/flyers, posting information on websites
Materials Support
• Volunteers to acquire event materials, distribute incentives on the day of the event
Event Day Support
• Greeters, Incentive Distributors, Participation Tracking
Participation Tracking Support
• Development of a tracking tool, providing training as needed, monitoring,
determining a winner
14. www.smcoe.org
Educator Guide
What’s in Our Air?
• Educator’s Guide pages 123-130
• Review with students what they “Know” and what they would “Want to
Know” about air pollution
• Review the San Mateo County Air Quality sheet. Students will get to
share their thoughts on different activities that lead to air pollution
• Particle Board Activity
Demonstrates to students how much dirt is in the air by using
Vaseline to trap particulate matter onto a particle board
15. www.smcoe.org
Classroom Lessons
Recycle Works Litter Collection Activities
• Provides students with lessons that will engage them about
the different kinds of litter that are found around their
neighborhood
• How litter impacts the environment
• Where students can change their environment through litter
collection and recycling
16. www.smcoe.org
Earth Day Stories/Movies
The Earth and I by Frank Asch
The Earth Book by Todd Parr
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss (also movie)
The Curious Garden by Peter Brown
Recycle by Gail Gibbons
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Composting: Nature's Recyclers by Robin Michal Koontz
More at http://www.recycleworks.org/schools/garden_children_books.html
17. Above and Beyond Ideas
School Based Ideas
• Recycling Shoes
• Composting Demonstration
• Clean Up Event
• Fashion Show of Reused Items
• Tree Planting
• Creating Projects of Recycled Materials
18. www.smcoe.org
Green Star Certification Program
Go to http://www.greenstarschools.info/
Select a Pathway
• Waste
• Transportation
• Energy
• Water
Conduct an Audit for Baseline
Develop a Plan
Engage in Action
Celebrate
19. www.smcoe.org
Cool the Earth Program
Visit http://cooltheearth.org/
Request Materials
Host an Assembly
Track Participation
Celebrate
**All program materials are available at no cost
20. www.smcoe.org
Event Evaluation
Enter Safe Routes and Earth Day Data at:
http://bit.ly/edparticipation
Key Data:
Number of 33 gallon bags of trash and recycling collected
Incentive:
All organizations that enter data are entered for drawing for
Jamba Juice Gift Cards!
22. www.smcoe.org
Event Planning Time
• Consider Your District/School
• Consider Possibilities Mentioned Today
• Outline Your Event Using the Planning Sheet
23. Share Out
Overview of Event
One element that may be challenging
One element you are excited about
24. www.smcoe.org
Workshop Evaluation
1. The workshop provided me with resources and ideas to help me either
implement a Earth Day Event and/or support others with implementing an
event
Agree Disagree
2. In considering planning, implementing and hosting an Earth Day Event,
what other resources or information would be of help?
3. What are the biggest challenges you face with planning and implementing
encouragement events?
4. What Safe Routes topics would you like to know more about?
Although mainstream America remained oblivious to environmental concerns in 1970, the stage had been set for change by the publication of Rachel Carson's New York Times bestseller Silent Spring in 1962. The book represented a watershed moment for the modern environmental movement, selling more than 500,000 copies in 24 countries and, up until that moment, more than any other person, Ms. Carson raised public awareness and concern for living organisms, the environment and public health.In spring 1970, Senator Gaylord Nelson created Earth Day as a way to force this issue onto the national agenda. Twenty million Americans demonstrated in different U.S. cities, and it worked!In 1970, President Richard Nixon and Congress established the U.S. EPA in response to the growing public demand for cleaner water, air and land. EPA was tasked with the challenging goal of repairing the damage already done to the environment and to establish guidelines to help Americans in making a cleaner and safer environment a reality.
Global climate change: direction connection to Safe Routes with its focus on carbon mitigation and Earth Day with its larger focus on removing pollutants in all of their forms. The nice thing about Safe Routes is that it is ongoing. Too often I hear every day is Earth Day, but many only remember it on April 22. Safe Routes helps makes thinking that every day is Earth Day a bit more tangible.I’d like to read a passage from earthday.org to help set the tone as to why this one extra event is so important:Climate change has many faces.A man in the Maldives worried about relocating his family as sea levels rise, a farmer in Kansas struggling to make ends meet as prolonged drought ravages the crops, a fisherman on the Niger River whose nets often come up empty, a child in New Jersey who lost her home to a super-storm, a woman in Bangladesh who can’t get fresh water due to more frequent flooding and cyclones… And they’re not only human faces.They’re the polar bear in the melting arctic, the tiger in India’s threatened mangrove forests, the right whale in plankton-poor parts of the warming North Atlantic, the orangutan in Indonesian forests segmented by more frequent bushfires and droughts… These faces of climate change are multiplying every day.
The County is hosting a Countywide Golden Sneaker contest scheduled from Feb26 through March 12 to help kick start families back into the habit of biking/walking/carpooling/using transit if a break was taken at the start of November. Participation is optional. The event kicks off and ends mid week because Monday starts seems to not work well for contests-people seem to forget over the weekend.Data must be reported to website in order to determine the winners Schools do not need to commit to the full contest period to be eligible for the iPod. All schools that enter data are eligible.
Note key activities-In Identifying ideal participants, you should consider or tell your event coordinators to consider how ready the school is to host something like this. It may be appropriate to include the whole school, interested teachers or perhaps just one grade level.Obtaining approval means talking likely with school administration and teachers.As you initiate planning, it is also appropriate to consider who will be getting incentives. If you have reluctant teachers, using grant dollars to buy books classroom libraries or new playground balls might be appropriate.It is also at this time that you’re going to want to let people know you’re hosting an event and you need volunteer help.
Note Key ActivitiesYou’ll want to get on the agenda of Parent, Teacher and Student Groups. PTAs and School Site Councils are great places to recruit help with outreach, acquiring materials, event day and participation tracking help. Student groups such as school councils are also great groups to engage. Student councils are wonderful resources for helping with outreach and participation tracking. On the topic of tracking, how you gather participation data is linked to who will be participating and how long your contest period will run. I will get to this, so if you have a question, please write it down. If I don’t answer you’re question when I cover participation tracking, feel free to ask away.One week prior, continue your outreach, gather the last of your materials and finalize how you’ll be tracking participation.
On the kick off day, you’ll want to distribute incentives as appropriate and track participation. Alonso will highlight a few ways to make the first event day or perhaps the entire contest period extra special.At the end of the contest period, you’ll use your tracking data to identify the winner and celebrate using the incentive you identified at the beginning of the contest period and perhaps advertised.Questions about the timeline?
I’m going to take a few moments to speak to a few key components of the timeline. First off outreach.Outreach efforts have two purposes. First, you want to make people aware that you are hosting an event. Second, you’re looking to engage specific groups to help with your volunteer needs.General outreach includes the usual avenues-robocallers, parent letters, flyers, e-mail, website posting, posters, principal/PTA newsletter blurbsIf you are looking to engage specific groups, the ideal avenue to reach them is to get on one of their meeting agendas
Engagement is closely tied recruiting volunteers. As you outreach and engage various groups, you’re working to increase awareness of the event, but you’re also looking for helpers so the entire event does not fall on your shoulders.Outreach support can come from teachers, parents, school administration, student groups who make visits to individual classroomsMaterials Support will likely come from parent volunteers who can help with going out to get items, although you may have a dedicated teacher on staff willing to help with thisEvent Day Support can come from parents, teachers, student groups, school administrationParticipation Tracking support can come from student groups, teachers, or parents depending on your school and the type of event you coordinate
As you plan your specific event, you’ll want to keep a running materials list. There’s nothing worse than planning to track with the use of coding dots and realize you don’t have any. Included are some general categories to consider.
Cities are charged with providing the State information for any and all clean up events held in their jurisdiction. Most are looking for: the weight of the waste and/or the # of 33 gallon bags collected. They are also looking for information about where litter was collected.
If you would like a free pick up, please let me know and RecycleWorks and I will contact your local hauler. I will need to know the date of your event before I contact your hauler.
Time: 1 MinuteIntent: To provide contact information for follow up questionsMaterial to cover with this slide: Contact information, questions, general wrap up, and a thanks for joining you.
