From Green Right Now Reports

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, April 22, 2010, Aaron Brothers Art & Framing is sponsoring a kids’ art contest themed Coloring Earth Green. Entries will be accepted in Aaron Brothers stores from February 28th until April 18th. Approximately $26,000 in prizes will be awarded to kids and their schools – including a Grand Prize trip to the Crayola Factory for two students and their families.

The contest is open to legal residents of Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Texas and Washington who are 5 to 12 years of age on Feb. 28, 2010.

Aaron Brothers said it will offer teachers a complimentary kit that contains “Green Thought Starters” — ideas, fun facts and “eco-easy” tips to be green and to raise awareness of the natural environment. Teachers may download or request the free teachers kit, which includes “Coloring Earth Green” art entry examples and the Green Thought Starters Kit.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Oceana.org has launched a bright, graphic, photo-rich web game called Ocean IQ Quiz where you and your kids can learn about ocean wildlife and habitats.

And quiz yourself.

The games are suitable for kids or adults. They are challenging. It took two of us, one adult, one teen, to score an 8 out of 10. Maybe we need to spend more time in the Explore section of Oceana website from which the material is drawn.

Try out any Ocean IQ Quiz and you’ll be entered in a drawing for a Wii, a trip to Baja California or Nautica clothing. You must be 13 and up to enter, and a resident of the United States, and you must include the email addresses of four friends to be entered in the drawing for the grand prize, the Baja trip. That trip includes an excursion with the ecotourism group SEE Turtles, which will take you to see turtles, in the sea, see?

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Photo: Charlie Archambault

By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

In 2007, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) launched Green Hour, a campaign that encourages children to have 60 minutes of unstructured play outside. The campaign has since branched out into NWF’s “Be Out There” movement. “Be Out There” officially kicked off last October in association with the movie Where the Wild Things Are. Sponsored by Wild Birds Unlimited and the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, “Be Out There” seeks to inspire and connect children with the great outdoors.

“National Wildlife Federation’s Be Out There campaign engages families, schools, communities and policy makers to give back to American children what they don’t even know they’ve lost: their connection to the natural world,” said Rebecca Garland, executive director of NWF’s Connecting People with Nature.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Sixteen middle and high schools from 12 states have been named winners in the first round of the third annual Lexus Eco Challenge, an educational program and contest that encourages young people to make a positive difference for the environment. Lexus will award a total of $500,000 in grants and scholarships throughout this year’s program.

Each winning team earns $10,000 in scholarships and grants to be shared among the students, teacher and school. Winners also will to participate in the Final Challenge for a chance at one of two $30,000 grand prizes and 14 $15,000 first-place awards.

For each of the challenges, teams are required to define an environmental issue that is important to them, develop an action plan to address the issue, implement the plan, and report on the results.

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SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — California kids will have a head start when it comes to the environment.

Beginning this year, environmental studies will be a part of the curriculum in all public schools, making California is the first state in the nation to require it.

Students will take 85 units of environment-related education in science, history and social science classes in grades K through 12.

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By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

The National Audubon Society is kicking off the second year of its Pennies for the Planet campaign, which is supported by TogetherGreen. With a slogan of “Because the planet needs some change,” schools, clubs, groups, and families are encouraged to help threatened ecosystems and wildlife by simply collecting pennies (and nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollars, too).

This year’s pennies will help protect three endangered U.S. coastlines:

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From Green Right Now Reports

The Green California Schools Summit and Expo will be held at the Pasadena Convention Center in Pasadena, Calif., from Dec. 9 through 11. From school gardens to recycling programs and energy efficiency retrofits, the summit will explore high performance schools — whether new buildings or renovations — that can save money, keep students and faculty healthier and engender life-long environmental awareness.

Alec Loorz, founder of Kids vs. Global Warming, will speak at the Green California Schools Summit

Pre-conference workshops and concurrent education sessions offer the chance to learn from stakeholders and innovators in the green schools movement – from State Architect David Thorman to government agencies, green schools rating organizations, architects and curriculum experts. An exposition will feature more than 100 companies with sustainable products and services.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Digital media resources from Ken Burns’ acclaimed documentary series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, including on-demand video, lessons plans, student activities, and historical archives, are now available through the PBS Teachers web portal.

The site includes preK-12 educational services and a searchable library of more than 9,000 local and national standards-based instructional resources.

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By Tom Kessler

ADDISON, Texas (ADDISONGREEN.INFO) — When you have the word “green” in your school name, it’s probably safe to assume that environmental awareness is top of mind. That’s exactly the case at Addison’s Greenhill School, a coeducational private day school with more than 1,200 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12.

Over the last four years, the school’s Green Team — composed of parents and faculty — has led a series of sustainability initiatives that are truly putting the green in Greenhill. School leaders have looked for ways to make the school a more sustainable place and to promote eco-friendly habits in the students. >> Read the full story

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From Green Right Now Reports

EarthEcho International, a nonprofit environmental education and youth leadership organization working to restore and protect our water planet, today announced a program that aims to involve millions of U.S. middle and high school students.

The Water Planet Challenge program, announced during the Clinton Global Initiative fifth annual meeting in New York, intends to foster tomorrow’s conservation leaders. EarthEcho says the program will fill a critical need in America’s classrooms, where it sees a lack unified ocean and fresh water systems education and service-learning content.

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By John DeFore
Green Right Now

Somewhere in between the sleep-away camps, beach excursions and baseball games of summer, kids and parents alike generally see the appeal of the sand-free floors and refrigerated air of a good museum. Institutions across the country know this is a great time to squeeze some education into kid-friendly, entertaining exhibitions; here’s a list of some of the best nature-oriented attractions for vacationers who’ve felt a bit too much heat this month.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Twenty-two teams of U.S. middle school students have been named state finalists in the inaugural Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge, in which the students were asked to “go green” by creating and implementing environmental change in their local communities. Two national winning teams and one grand prize-winning team will be chosen and announced on May 18.

More than 2,000 students participated in the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge and state finalist projects covered topics such as e-waste recycling, ecosystem restoration and water conservation. The Siemens Foundation partnered with Discovery Education and National Science Teachers Association on the competition, which will expand to elementary schools in 2009 and to high schools in 2010.

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