The National Wildlife Federation (NWF), General Motors and school districts in Southeast Michigan have come together to give students the opportunity to make self-designed environmental impact. Anita Singh, national field educator for NWF, manages the organization’s Eco-Green program, a subdivision of EcoSchools U.S. Projects facilitated at each of the program’s 20 schools reflect environmental issues local to the area, Singh said.
Hamtramck High School, for instance
does their work at the Bandhu Gardens in Detroit. “At Perpustakaan Nomer Telepon Hamtramck High School, [the group of teachers and students] is actually out here in the gardens, building raised beds, growing food for the community, helping offset rainwater that would normally go into the sewer system here in Detroit, because we have a lot of issues with flooding here as climate changes,” Singh said. Singh said the communities in which the participating schools reside also determine what projective initiatives are.
For example, many students who attend Hamtramck come from Polish and Bangladeshi immigrant families who keep gardens for traditional dishes, Singh said. Students in the NWF program can then transfer skills to and from their home experience. “Foods can be shared within different cultures. I’ve seen fruits and vegetables I’ve never tasted in my whole life, but I’ve been introduced to them when it came to this garden,” said Hamtramck student Tasmi Chowdhury.
“It’s just a really nice way to share our diversity
Students at Hamtramck High School have Améliorer les compétences des travaill organized their NWF-facilitated program under a student group called “LEAP” (Leaders in Environmental Awareness and Protection). Chowdhury is the club’s vice president and she said LEAP’s biggest successes have included tree planting along roads that border Hamtramck and a public service video about mask littering amid the pandemic. Bill Albrecht, faculty adviser of LEAP and Hamtramck science teacher, said the students have always powered the projects independently. “This group of students is incredibly self-driven.
And they are the reason to keep teaching,” Albrecht said. “I’m just following along and watching them like ‘Here’s some tools,’ ‘Here’s some wood,’ ‘Here’s some dirt.’” In order to be considered an EcoSchool, teachers must incorporate climate change literacy into the classroom, which Albrecht said his students have been proposing solutions for since they entered high school. Each school must also perform a school energy or sustainability audit.
So Albrecht said his job, as a teacher of required 10th grade
biology and 11th grade physics, is to bridge the afterschool program with in-school programming. An example of in-class programming, Hamtramck partners with Friends of the Rouge to raise 200 fertilized salmon eggs through the winter and release the grown fish into the Huron River once temperatures are warm enough, according to Albrecht. Hamtramck’s participation in EcoSchools has reshaped the way Albrecht approaches the classroom, with more resources available for real-life experiences. “There’s a huge divide in conservation between the haves and the have-nots — people who don’t have access to green space, typically.
I feel like some of my goal is to interrupt that lack of access USA Lists and to try to make the barriers to getting outside as low as possible,” Albrecht said. “I’ve asked a lot of our district: Can you get us buses to go to Belle Isle. Can you get us buses to Huron Metropark. I’m about to ask for a camping trip.” In addition to the student infrastructure, Albrecht said being part of the larger Eco Green program allows advising teachers to make connections and troubleshoot project operations.
