Gray Panthers, Ann Arbor school officials discuss environmental education

Posted: Oct 3, 2009 at 6:33 PM [Oct 3, 2009]

How much can one child do to stop global warming?

A lot, believe the Gray Panthers of Washtenaw. And so they took it upon themselves to get a closer look at exactly what the Ann Arbor Public Schools are teaching in terms of environmental education, and what Ann Arbor’s schools are doing to become environmentally friendly.

The group, which is a national organization that works for “social and economic justice and peace for all people,” met with representatives of the Ann Arbor School District on Saturday morning at the University of Michigan Turner Senior Resource Center to have the discussion.

“We’re all interested in what our children are learning about climate control and how global changes affect our youth,” said Barb Clarke, a Gray Panther member.

Present on behalf of the Ann Arbor School District were superintendent Todd Roberts, Ann Arbor Public Schools physical properties director Randy Trent, Lakewood Elementary environmental education teacher Dave Szczygiel, and Huron High School physics teacher Stephen Schaffer.

Roberts explained that the Ann Arbor Public Schools belong to one of few districts in Michigan that still offer an environmental education program.

“Nationally, with the way funding for education is right now and the economy overall, many districts that had environmental education programs have long since had to stop them, along with art and music as well,” he said. “I think that says a lot for the Ann Arbor schools to maintain this commitment. I think it speaks well to the values of this community.”

Environmental education is offered to students in kindergarten through eighth grade not only via in-class discussion, but also through field trips at each grade level.

“We want to give them a positive experience outdoors so that it builds (their interest in environmental education),” said Szczygiel, citing the example of the first-grade field trip to study animals outdoors at the Kensington Nature Center in Milford, where children have the opportunity to feed wild birds such as chickadees and woodpeckers directly from their own hands.

Over the past 40 years, the wild birds have been trained to land on visitors’ hands and receive food. This bonding experience with nature is a fond memory that children can take with them as they grow older, Szczygiel said.

“They learn how to explore the outdoors with a purpose.”

As students move up in grade level, other field trips themes include life cycles, pond habitats, geology, terrestrial habitats, astronomy, recycling, winter survival and urban hydrology. For their astronomy lessons, students need not leave Ann Arbor schools, as the district owns an impressive planetarium that they upgraded in 2003.

“It is one of the most state-of-the-art planetariums in the country right now,” Schaffer said.

At the high school level, student field trips continue, and courses include biology, chemistry, physics, geology and earth science.

But Ann Arbor Public Schools aren’t simply telling students how to be environmentally friendly -- they are also practicing what they teach. Skyline High School, which opened in 2008, has received state and national awards for its green construction.

“We recycled as much as the building stands today; we recycled the entire building and we saved over $200,000 doing that,” Trent told the Gray Panthers. “Every piece of cardboard, scrap metal, (etc.) - we recycled every piece of material that we could.”

Ann Arbor schools are also going green in other ways. During the 2007-2008 school year, they recycled over 400,000 pounds of paper.

“We’re looking at what you do with a switch, and that piece of paper you throw away,” Trent said.

The schools are also all using a green cleaning product now, and have, over the course of the past couple of decades, gradually implemented more and more energy-conserving features. Among many other changes, lamps have been replaced by reflectors, CO2 controls for middle and high school gyms and auditoriums have been upgraded, vendmisers (which regulate power usage) have been installed in pop machines, and water conservation measures have been installed on many faucets, toilets and urinals.

All in all, the Gray Panthers seemed impressed by what they learned about the public schools’ efforts to go green.

“They don’t just inform the kids, they lead by example, and that’s what touched me so much,” said Odile Hugonot Haber, a board member for the Gray Panthers.

Longstanding Gray Panther and board member June Rusten agreed, saying, “They did a tremendous job - (Ann Arbor schools) are so unique in the country.”

Superintendent Roberts invited the Gray Panthers to get involved in supporting in the district’s environmental education program by making a donation, helping with activities, or by coming along on class field trips.

“It is heartening to us that a group such as yourselves would come to us to say that you want us to do more of it.”