Sustainability Coordinator success stories
Incorporating CRSE, Food Justice, and STEAM
PS14 Fairview (Queens) ● SC: Bianca Bibiloni ● Grades K-5
Bianca joined GrowNYC’s Recycling Champions program, which is heavily infused with CRSE, and shared the Recycling Champions curriculum during weekly grade-wide assemblies.
They also joined GrowNYC's Seed to Plate Program, a standards-aligned 5th grade program that teaches students about food systems, healthy eating, the environment, & their local community.
With a Sustainability Project Grant from the Office of Sustainability, Bianca taught CRSE STEAM in their garden to empower students to solve real world problems in their garden & neighborhood
Parents on the school leadership team taught students and staff gardening techniques from their home countries.
Drawing from Edible Schoolyard’s curriculum on the Indigenous 3 Sisters crops (corn, beans, and squash), the school grew those crops in their garden and performed a play based on The 3 Sisters.
Using grants from Stop & Shop and Citizen's Committee, they created and stocked a food pantry
They hosted a Sustainable STEAM Fair in partnership with GrowNYC, NY Sun Works, and NYSCI
Their Student Green Team also signed up for (and won!) the elementary division of the Queens Museum’s Rube Goldberg Competition, using recycled materials and a solar panel in their design
During remote learning, Bianca kept their Hydroponics and Urban Architecture class active with at-home sustainability lessons/resources like bottle composting, reusing kitchen scraps, and growing microgreens.
Civic Action & Sustainability
Harbor School (Governor's Island) ● SC: Robert Markuske ● Grades 9-12
Robert used a Sustainability Project Grant to partner with Earth Matter to hire a former student to bike to students’ homes to collect organics.
His students created videos to memorialize the organics processes and even spoke at a NYC Council meeting to bring organics collection back to NYC.
They also posted on social media to convince NY State Assembly members to vote in favor of bills that support oyster and mollusk shell re-use for marine restoration.
Getting Students and Staff On-board
World View High School (Bronx) ● SC: Deborah Reich ● Grades 9-12
Deborah and the Green Team began by training teachers in recycling first. They then incrementally rolled out recycling to students in their classrooms.
To keep the Green Team motivated, Deborah purchased t-shirts, scales and trash grabbers with money from a DSNY Green Team mini-grant.
Green Team members attended the Catskills Youth Climate Summit at Frost Valley in October and had a chance to work with schools outside of NYC on climate action.
Joined the a pen pal writing program called Green Connections, connected with students from Andres Central School in the Catskills to share school-based sustainability ideas
Participated in the Office of Sustainability’s S.E.E.D. program in an effort to expand their sustainability efforts beyond recycling
Keeping Sustainability Alive Remotely
Brighter Choice Community School (Brooklyn) ● SC: Wilma Ambrose & Karen Perrella ● Grades K-5
Shared sustainability initiatives by having two Sustainability Coordinators, Wilma and Karen
Created two student led groups that serve as their “green team”:
Sustainability Club (3-5 grade), meets weekly on Wednesdays
GT2 Squad (K-2 grade), meets weekly
With the transition to remote learning, Wilma and Karen began hosting her Sustainability Club meetings using Google Hangouts, with parents able to attend
Migrated Earth Day event to a virtual format that highlighted five selected student videos demonstrating creative re-use projects , a raffle hosted by partner Edible School Yard NYC, and an "It Matters” music video.
Other Sustainability Coordinator Successes/Ideas
Dr. Jared Fox’s students at Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School (Manhattan), in partnership with WE ACT and Futures Ignite, have an annual Environmental Justice Expo to promote the construction of a Clean Air Green Corridor on 182nd Street with the goal of linking six schools east of Broadway to Highbridge Park. This work is part of their ongoing efforts to address climate change and environmental justice issues in their community.
Kathy Ha of Beginning With Children Charter School II (Brooklyn) hosted a virtual zero waste lunch after her students watched Cafeteria Culture’s Microplastic Madness.
Annemarie Summa Barbarino of P.S 62 –Kathleen Grimm School (Staten Island), created a Google site for their green team, who also created a “wear a mask” commercial.
Julie Tran of P.S.20 - Anna Silver School (Manhattan) and her green team used their Twitter account to participate in our Sustainability Challenge, and their Green Team and Arts Team created an at-home Earth Week challenge that was shared with families and the school community.
In this interview, Kerri Durante of P.S. 971 (Brooklyn) and District 20 STEM Coach, discusses how she has been able to Keep Sustainability Alive Inside with her students, from recording her lessons, creating “how to” videos, and watching environmental films.
Jane Cyphers and her colleague James Magliano of P.S. 10 -Magnet School of Math & Science (Brooklyn) led a group of sixty 5th grade students, the “Green Dreamers of PS10”, in creating google slide presentations during remote learning that showcased their environmental outreach throughout the year.