Teacher Mini Grants: Outstanding Teachers that Bring Climate Literacy to Classrooms
What are Teacher Mini Grants?
GGI began Teacher Mini Grants in collaboration with Pleasanton Unified School District. These awards celebrate and incentivize teachers who incorporate sustainability or environment literacy in their classroom. So far this school year, we’ve funded 17 teacher grant applicants and look forward to granting 50+ additional awards in the district.
Here are 3 Outstanding Winners and Their Lessons!
1. Computer Science Teacher Kevin Kiyoi’s lesson “Where do iPhones go to die?” covers the growing issue of e-waste, including the life cycle of electronics and the importance of proper disposal to prevent environmental harm.
Amador Valley High School teacher Kevin Kiyoi teaches his computer science students about the environmental impacts of e-waste.
2. Foothill High School students in Gary Johnson’s Engineering classes conducted home energy audits in his lesson about phantom loads. Not only did they create plans to reduce their own home’s energy consumption, they also created outreach to educate their community to do the same.
“We learned about electricity, phantom loads, and ways in which we can reduce our electricity consumption. Students completed a home energy audit where they found the plug loads using kill-a-watt meters. They analyzed their PGE bill to determine their homes total electricity consumption and put together a plan to reduce their own homes electricity consumption. Then students put together an educational campaign to educate their community on how to reduce electricity use and about the phantom loads in our houses.”
Foothill High School teacher Gary Johnson demonstrates the process for conducting a home energy audit.
3. Emily Richardson’s 5th grade science students at Hearst Elementary School learned to calculate their water footprint to understand how this finite resource is impacted by human activities. By seeing how much water it takes to produce food, clothing, or other daily essentials, Ms. Richardson’s class was able to understand the importance of water conservation.
Emily Richardson’s 5th grade science students learn about water resources.
Are You a Pleasanton Unified Teacher?
We are still offering 60 more mini grants! Apply in 5 minutes HERE – remember to attach:
- A lesson plan
- A rubric
- 2 examples of student work
Some criteria to keep in mind about funds:
- Are first come, first served
- Used however the teacher chooses
- Don’t require a budget to apply
