Implement Best Practice Actions in a Project

While the organization of Best Practice Actions is underway, consider these ideas to build community partnerships for environmental education 

Community partnerships can provide resources to schools to advance environmental education, and the partnerships can also help strengthen communities by building sustaining connections. Imagine the power of a young student meeting and getting to engage with an environmental leader in business, government, or a non-profit. Explore the variety of MN GreenStep Schools Resource Organizations for some examples of the types of organizations interested in working with schools. 

Partner with businesses and non-profits

• Find out if businesses, non-profits, and service organizations in your community offer grants, resources, time or connections that could help your school in its environmental education efforts, even if they are not environmental organizations. 

• Many industries are looking to support and interest the future workforce and may have outreach resources such as camps or curriculum kits

Partner with Cities and Government

• Schools exist within larger communities. Work with the city in which your school resides to see how they can support place-based education. For example, a public works professional could visit the classroom to talk about a water treatment plant or offer a tour. 

• Students often come from communities outside the school’s location, particularly in greater Minnesota. Reach out to the cities that students are from to engage city leaders and staff that serve the places students call home. 

• Are any of the cities serving students in the GreenStep City Program? There are many opportunities to connect GreenStep City and GreenStep Schools best practices

• City departments often have public outreach as part of their mission. Facilitating that outreach at a school can benefit both cities and students and their families.

• Many watershed districts offer K-12 resources about best practices to protect local waters and welcome opportunities to connect with schools

• Many counties offer programs, education, and resources to educate about recycling or composting as part of their mission of waste prevention.

Partner with Higher Education

• Explore ways to work with higher education to further their research on educational practices while gaining access to new approaches and resources 

Submit Annual Review

The annual review for this best practice includes

• Confirming that Best Practice Actions are still active. (Eg. are programs still in operation and working? Are event or time based actions repeated each year?)

• Amending the documentation with any changes

• Adding any lessons learned from the prior year to share with others.

To submit the annual review, send in the datasheet (future) for this best practice with updated calendar year in the update column to reflect which BPAs are still active.

GreenStep Advisor

• Contact Jonee Kulman Brigham for assistance

GreenStep Resource Organizations

Explore GreenStep Resource Organizations for this best practice based on types of assistance they offer. As more resource organizations join, there will be more offerings and an ability to sort by type and topic of support. 

• For a comprehensive resource, see the Minnesota Association for Environmental Education, which hosts a searchable database of resources called the EE Portal to support environmental education, including organizations with resource offerings.