Environmental Resources

BCPS Recycling

Recycling in Broward County Public School is under the Environmental Conservation & Utility Management Department's purview.

Environmental Conservation & Utility Management Page

"The Environmental Conservation & Utility Management Office exists to facilitate increased awareness and efficient use of energy and other natural resources. The main mission of the Environmental Conservation & Utility Management Department is to enhance environmental stewardship, contribute to the District's efforts to reduce inefficiencies in the use of energy resources such as electricity and natural gas. In addition, it is our mission to further reduce water consumption and the production of solid waste, while increasing the comfort level of classrooms and schools."

Environmental Links

Environmental links:

Visit the BCPS Eco-Guide for all things environmental! You will find district resources, contacts, lesson plans, activities, field trips, and a more comprehensive environmental links. BCPS Eco-Guide

Broward County NatureScape - NatureScapes are Florida-friendly landscapes that provide habitat for native and migratory wildlife, conserve water and minimize the use of common pollutants such as fertilizers and pesticides. These "islands of green" link together to make a chain of healthy corridors in our urban environment. Residents, business owners, schools and communities of all types can create their own "island of green." Explore this site for simple and practical advice.

https://www.broward.org/NatureScape/Pages/Default.aspx

Broward County Public School's Environmental Conservation & Utility Management Office - The main mission is to enhance environmental stewardship and contribute to the District's efforts to reduce inefficiencies in the use of energy resources such as electricity and natural gas. In addition, it is our mission to further reduce water consumption and the production of solid waste, while increasing the comfort level of classrooms and schools.

Environmental Conservation and Utility Management

Broward County Parks - STEAM/Environmental Education Programs - STEAM in Parks and Schools in Parks

https://www.broward.org/Parks/Pages/STEAMinParks.aspx

A Billion Acts of Green Challenge - Change starts with action. Better yet, an action that affects the world around you. A Billion Acts of Green are happening across the planet. From students in classrooms to organizers in their communities to officials in government, there are ways for anyone of any background to make a difference. Start small and go big — or start big and stay big. Either way, keep coming back, keep taking action and join the movement to change the world. Add your act, watch the Billions grow, and join the movement to change the world.

https://www.earthday.org/take-action-now/#challenge

Live Cams of an elephant park, coral city, burrowing owl, etc.

https://www.awildconnection.com/live-wildlife-cams/

Dream in Green - The Green Schools Challenge (GSC), is a whole-system approach to water, energy, and resource efficiency specific for elementary, middle, and high schools and offers teacher training on how to implement lessons. The program engages students in hands-on, educational activities that save water and energy, as well as exposes the school community to the links between our natural resources, climate change, and community sustainability. The GSC provides a curriculum that builds upon required STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Math) materials to address sustainability topics and provides grants for schools to implement environmental initiatives at their school.

https://dreamingreen.org/green-schools-challenge/

Everglades Foundation - The Everglades also known as the "River of Grass" is one of the wonders of the world. It is a vast subtropical wilderness that has been declared a World Heritage Site, International Biosphere Reserve, and Wetland of International Importance.

This landscape is home to over 450,00 acres of mangrove forests, the largest continuous seagrass meadows on Earth, the oldest cypress trees on the planet, and over 350 different animal species, many of them threatened or endangered.

Historically, the Everglades spanned from the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, down to Lake Okeechobee, through the River of Grass, down to Florida Bay and the iconic Florida Keys. In the early 1900s, development in Florida began to boom, and in an effort to support the growing population and spur the growth of the agricultural community, the original flow was cut off, and the water originally flowing south from Lake Okeechobee was redirected East and West into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries.

Today, this system is still in place, and nutrient pollution continues to make its way into the lake. When Lake Okeechobee rises during the wet season, the levees are opened, and the polluted water is flushed into the estuaries, tainting Florida’s freshwater supply and making its way into our coastal communities, while leaving the Everglades starved for freshwater.

During the summer months, the hot waters and high levels of sunlight stimulate the phosphorus, and it does what it is meant to do – it ignites growth. This growth, however, comes in the form of toxic algal blooms.

https://evergladesfoundation.org/

Everglades Literacy -

The Everglades Literacy Program empowers the next generation of conservation stewards by investing in teachers to drive cultural change within schools for the benefit of local and ecological communities.

As the vital efforts of Everglades restoration takes center stage, it is important to recognize the key to long-term sustainability rests on the shoulders of the next generation understanding the ecological and economic value of the Everglades.

The Everglades Literacy Program gives teachers the tools and knowledge to teach and move forward in educating current and future generations. The program provides teachers, students, schools, and families with:

STEM-based professional development – Everglades Literacy Teacher Trainings.
Free lessons and materials for each teacher who attends a Teacher Training.
Free, online PreK-12 Teacher Toolkit with 41 comprehensive Everglades lessons. plans that align with State Academic Standards.
Additional instructional resources for the classroom or virtual classroom
PreK-12 Everglades Champion Schools Program – designed to showcase and recognize exceptional Everglades literacy efforts in a school.
Classroom presentations, participation in science nights, field trips, and other school events.

https://www.evergladesliteracy.org/

Everglades National Park - This is a link to our Google Drive with different curriculum materials. There are multiple guides listed by grade level K-8. Feel free to use what works best for you and your students.

Everglades Education Curriculum Materials (Google Drive)

Our Everglades Mountains and Valleys video series as a great introduction to different habitats that make up the Everglades ecosystem. Keep in mind this was designed for upper elementary and middle school students.

Everglades Mountains and Valleys Video Series

Younger students might benefit from this section of our website for kids.

Everglades Education For Kids

The Science, Research, History, and Culture sections of our website may be useful to older students and adults.

Science, Research, History, and Culture

Our Life in the Everglades ID Guide will help your students identify the common flora and fauna of the freshwater slough and sawgrass prairie habitats.

Life in the Everglades (Common Plant and Animal ID Guide)

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Gardens Challenges:

Welcome to the 24th Annual Fairchild Challenge, where we’re reimagining how nature can blend with our city! This year, we want to explore the ecological connections that make turning our communities into a “City in a Garden” possible.

This year, the Fairchild Challenge invites you to help reconnect local ecosystems with our urban environment. We don’t and can’t live separately from nature. Even in cities like Miami, pockets of nature still provide us with daily essentials like food and clean air. Together, by tending to native plant gardens, examining trees and ground cover on your school grounds, re-envisioning public spaces like a garden, and sharing the power of plants and science with others, we will uncover how plants stand as nature-based solutions to some of our greatest urban problems.

We have an incredible opportunity to transform South Florida and beyond into places where both people and nature can thrive by fostering important connections within our ecosystem and our urban community.

Let’s grow it together!

Fairchild Tropical Gardens Elementary School Challenges

Fairchild Tropical Gardens Middle School Challenges

Fairchild Tropical Gardens High School Challenges

Florida Agriculture in the Classroom, Inc. (FAITC) is a non-profit organization that provides educational resources, grants, and other programs to help Pre-K through 12th-grade educators incorporate agricultural concepts into their core subject area classes. The goal of FAITC is to expand youth awareness and understanding of Florida agriculture and natural resources by integrating agricultural concepts into core educational disciplines and supporting programs.

Florida Agriculture in the Classroom

Gopher Tortoise Day

April 10^th was officially adopted by the Gopher Tortoise Council as Gopher Tortoise Day! In Florida, gopher tortoises are found in parts of all 67 counties and are frequently encountered in neighborhoods, along roadways, and in many of Florida’s public parks and forests. The goal of Gopher Tortoise Day is to increase awareness and appreciation for these long-lived, gentle reptiles.

You can help celebrate Florida’s only native tortoise by hosting an event in your community, asking your local City or County Commission to officially adopt April 10^th as Gopher Tortoise Day, and by educating others on the importance of protecting gopher tortoises.

Gopher Tortoise Day website

Green School Yards America -

Green Schoolyards America seeks to transform asphalt-covered school grounds into park-like green spaces that improve children’s well-being, learning, and play while contributing to their communities' ecological health and climate resilience. We are working to change the paradigm for school ground design, use, and management so all students will have access to the natural world in the places they already visit on a daily basis.

Green School Yards America

Seek app by iNaturalist -

Take your nature knowledge up a notch with Seek! Use the power of image recognition technology to identify the plants and animals all around you. Earn badges for seeing different types of birds, amphibians, plants, and fungi and participate in monthly observation challenges with Our Planet on Netflix.

Seek App by iNaturalist

iNaturalist -

iNaturalist.org is a place where you can record what you see in nature, meet other nature lovers, and learn about the natural world. It is also a crowdsourced species identification system and an organism occurrence recording tool. You can use it to record your own observations, get help with identifications, collaborate with others to collect this kind of information for a common purpose or access the observational data collected by iNaturalist users.

iNaturalist

Merlin Bird ID app - Free bird identification app - Free, instant bird ID help for 5,500+ birds for North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Merlin Bird ID app

National Wildlife Federation - When families connect with the outdoors, they're doing more than strengthening bonds with one another—they're forming lasting bonds with our natural world. Through products, programs, and other experiences, the National Wildlife Federation creates ways for kids and families to experience nature and become empowered stewards of our environment.

National Wildlife Federation (for Kids and Families)

Packed with awesome animal facts, stories, and photos, comic adventures; wildlife puzzles, riddles, contests, and crafts. Plus, outdoor discoveries that focus on many animals perfect for ages 0-12

Ranger Rick for Kids

A Resource to Help Change a Hobby for a Few into a Powerful Conservation Tool of Many.

Here you can learn how to turn simple gardening into habitat restoration by using plants that are native to your specific area. This website will provide you with the information you need to do that. By planting native plants and recreating natural habitats that are unique to your area, you will make a valuable contribution to the conservation and restoration of South Florida's natural heritage!

Native Plant Search

Nutrients for Life -

The Nutrients for Life Foundation is a global organization consisting of members and collaborative partners that develops and distributes science-based materials to improve plant nutrient literacy, soil health knowledge and promotes fertilizer’s role in sustaining a growing population. Plant nutrients, especially nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, are also required to keep our parks, gardens, playgrounds, sports fields and golf courses green and healthy in communities from coast to coast.

Nutrients for Life

SciStarter - SciStarter LTI is now available in Canvas. You can assign SciStarter/Citizen Science projects to your students and track their progress.

SciStarter is the place to find, join, and contribute to science through providing people access to more than 2700 searchable formal and informal research projects and events.  But more than just a project directory, SciStarter also offers a coordinated place to record contributions and access the tools and instruments needed to participate in citizen science projects like Earth Challenge 2023. 

Additional projects can be found at SciStarter

SciStarter

South Florida’s Delaney Reynolds is featured in the Earth Day April issue of National Geographic – Congrats to this young superstar for climate change! National Geographic Story featuring Delaney Reynolds

From EPA WaterSense:

Thirsty for Knowledge? Let's Learn About Water!

Do you know how much water a family of four uses every day in the United States? Not 50 gallons, not 100 gallons, but 400 gallons! You could take up to 10 baths with that much water—but who would want to do that? Fortunately, there are many things we can do to save.

EPA WaterSense

Fabulous Events that the STEM+Computer Science Staff Presented and Provided Resources

Join our Engage Groups and keep up to date info that we send out:
Environmental Stewards - Broward Schools
STEM SECME (STEAM STREAM SCREAM)

Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC) (January 17, 2020):
Hands On STEAM Application of Computer Science
Lead Presenter: Rebecca Malones
Co-Presenter: Sheryl Arriola

2020 Makey Makey Activities Links

Makey Makey Interactive Board Activities

Florida League of Middle School (October 18, 2019):

PBL Portal - Solving Authentic Problems in Middle Grades and Green PBL Opportunities, Recognition and Rewards
Presenters: Sheryl Arriola, Rebecca Malones, Cindy Griffin
Presentation: STEM + CS PBL Environmental Presentation
Handouts:

2019 Broward PBL Portal SciStater one pager rev 05102019.pdf

2019 Environmental PBL Resources.pdf

2019 Projects on Broward Portal.pdf

Redefining the Block: Minecraft in the Curriculum
Presenters: Erik Leitner, Belinda Beckford
Presentation: education.minecraft.net
Handout: https://browardschools.instructure.com/courses/123/pages/minecraft-education-edition

2019 Gifted Symposium (September 26, 2019)

Handouts:

Minecraft Info and Lever with Linkage Activity Minecraft Info and Simple Lever Activity Seed Dispersal Engineering Design Project

JDETF Presentation (April 6, 2019) - Empower Your Content with STEM & Computer Science Presenters: Erik Leitner, Sheryl Arriola, and Rebecca Malones

Handout: JDETF Handout (STEM+CS Integration)

Micro in Makerspace presentation:

bit.ly/microbitsway

Makey Makey Presentation

Presenter Information

2018 Gifted Symposium (Nov. 2, 2018) - "Empower your Content with STEM & Computer Science" - Lisa Milenkovic, Sheryl Arriola, Debra Thomas, Annmargareth Marousky, Cynthia Griffin, Erik Leitner, Rebecca Malones, Justin Feller – Applied Learning – All Levels, SCI, STEM - STEM, especially computer science, is integrated throughout every aspect of daily life, yet often, in isolation in the school day. Engage students and empower your lessons by integrating STEM and computer science into all content areas. This presentation will provide hands-on centers that dem Gifted Participants onstrate simple and inexpensive ways to engage and enrich students in content through explorations in STEM and computer science. Explore augmented reality, computer coding, robotics, and sensory integration in English language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, art, music physical education. Also included are tips for deliberate attention to empathy and social-emotional learning opportunities through the integration of design principles. Participants at the Gifted Symposium are shown on the right playing with the banana piano and cereal box guitar with Makey Makey.

Brochure

Handouts provided at the symposium

Contact Information

Lisa Milenkovic

Supervisor, STEM+C, AI, & Immersive Learning