Environmental Stewardship

The Broward Youth Climate Summit provides a platform for students to advocate for policy change and give students a voice in promoting environmental sustainability.  Students who attend the Summit have opportunities to share their climate action plans or projects and network with each other, elected officials, and scientists working on sustainability issues. 

Broward Youth Climate Summit

Partnership between BCPS (Applied Learning Dept. and Environmental Health & Safety Dept.), Broward County Natural Resources Division, and the Environmental Conservation Organization. In its 14th year, this district-wide challenge recognizes and rewards traditional BCPS schools, teachers, students, and non-instructional and custodial staff for their efforts to learn about and implement environmentally sustainable measures and green initiatives within their schools and communities.  Over $230,000 in cash and prizes have been awarded.

P3 Eco-Challenge Information

In partnership with the Miami Heat, schools are challenged to find innovative ways to reduce energy consumption at each school campus in a 3-month period compared to previous years.  Recognized by the White House, National Geographic, NOAA, and the NBA during Green Week as a highly effective and innovative model to reduce energy and water consumption.

How Low Can You Go Challenge Information 

An initiative between Broward County Parks and Applied Learning, STEM +CS to involve students in grades 6-8 in their local parks to engage in the environmental curriculum while enriching their understanding of local environmental issues through project-based learning.

Schools are provided a comprehensive curriculum supplement for teaching health, science, language arts, mathematics, and social studies through using a school garden. Gardening for Nutrition is one of many resources from Florida Agriculture in the Classroom that is used and implemented to connect edible gardening with interdisciplinary instruction in the K-12 classroom.  Curriculum sponsored by Florida Ag in the Classroom.

Technology Empowered Agriculture or TEA Garden Food Forest at Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) is funded through The Frederick A. DeLuca Foundation, in partnership with the Broward Education Foundation and BCPS STEM+CS. It is an in-depth model to educate students, teachers and their communities on how and why they can sustainably grow edible food together in their neighborhoods. Integrating schoolyard edible gardening in classrooms, cafeterias and afterschool programs, the Broward TEA Garden Food Forest also incorporates exciting technology used in the agriculture industry, such as drones, sensors, artificial intelligence, and digital data collection and collaboration.

Students engage in real-world, culturally relevant STEM project-based learning opportunities to create environmentally sustainable solutions to environmental challenges utilizing a range of technological innovations to monitor gardens, cultivation, and harvesting in their school and communities.

A pilot initiative started at Beachside Montessori Village through a partnership between the school, BCPS Food & Nutrition Services, Kids Can, and Broward Outreach to reduce food waste in the school cafeteria. Students are encouraged to donate leftover unopened, uneaten, or unpeeled items from their lunch trays that they don’t want to eat.  These collected foods were donated to a local food bank, which is then distributed to the community.  This pilot program is currently on hold.

A model for science-based environmental education on public conservation lands. Each program represents a partnership between the Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection and a school district to bring students outdoors to learn science. Locally, it is part of the Friends of State Parks initiative. The LIFE Program is not a curriculum, but a process for reinforcing and enriching the existing curriculum through hands-on, field labs facilitated by educators, scientists, and land/resource managers.

The Florida Department of Education and a host of community partners recognized students, teachers, classes, schools, and school districts for their environmental achievements. BCPS was the first district awarded the Green District gold award and has been a gold recipient since then. www.fldoe.org/schools/healthy-schools/green-schools.stml 

Initiated by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to encourage K-12 schools to conserve and protect Florida's natural resources. BCPS schools designated as Gold Apple school - Driftwood Middle.  Bronze School designated - Griffin Elementary.  Green Apple schools – Central Park Elementary School, Dania Beach Elementary, Orange Brook Elementary, Pines Collegiate Academy 6-12, New River Middle, North Andrews Gardens Elementary, Walter C Young Middle. 

Through school-based action teams of students, administrators, educators, and community volunteers, Eco-Schools combines effective "green" management of the school grounds, facilities and the curriculum.

Become-an-Eco-School

Over 200 educators have been trained in professional development in learning how to implement the NatureScape initiative, how to achieve Schoolyard Habitat certification through the Broward County's NatureScape office, strategies for teaching students the importance of water conservation, urban ecology, and environmental stewardship through fun, cross-curricular environmental activities and learning gardens that enhance the current science and math curriculum.

Broward County NatureScape

The Everglades Curriculum teacher training is a hands-on, inquiry-based program aimed at improving the understanding of this rich topic through interdisciplinary techniques. The Everglades Literacy Conceptual Framework and K-12 Curriculum is a free set of lessons (three per grade level) that scaffold from K-12 in order to build complexity among topics.

Annual environmental competition for high school students held at various Broward County parks sponsored by our partner, Environmental Conservation Organization (ECO). Students are tested in five universal categories: 

• Aquatic Ecology - Water ecology, water chemistry, plants and animals living in or around water, water quality, water conservation, etc. 
• Current Environmental Issue - A topic selected annually by the Regional or State or Envirothon Planning Committees. Most years the Regional and Florida Envirothon Committees select the same topic as the National Committee. 
• Forestry - Forest ecology, tree identification, insects, diseases, timber measurements, forest management, urban forestry, forest economics, etc.
• Soil & Land Use - Classification, soil formation, basic chemical and physical properties, profiles, soil characteristics, soil surveys, site suitability, erosion, land use, conservation practices, etc. 
• Wildlife - Identification, habitat, foods, diseases, rules and regulations, management, invasive, etc.  

The Patrick Leahy Farm to School Grant Program equips six schools to incorporate garden herbs into cafeteria meals. Funds from the grant, with matching funds from the Broward Education Foundation, will be used to procure and install materials for harvesting and cleaning the bounty in compliance with regulations and in accordance with food safety plans. 

USDA Farm to School