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Greening your school

We provide Whatcom County students, teachers, school custodians, and food service staff the tools and technical know-how to help their school be more sustainable.

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Nationally, schools are one of the largest public-sector energy consumers, operate the largest mass transit fleet in the country, occupy 2 million acres of land, and serve over 7 billion meals annually with related food waste. Whatcom County is no different. We provide students, teachers, school custodians, and food service staff the tools and technical know-how to create more sustainable schools. Whether they’re reducing waste stream contamination, increasing water use efficiency, or finding other topics to tackle, students can learn and be a part of the solution.

If you’re a student:

Anyone can take action! Whether you are already part of a green team or you are simply interested in doing a sustainability project, we can help by providing guidance, resources, and support. Contact us at Schools@re-sources.org or fill out this form! If you are interested in forming a green team at your school, check out our Green Team Network webpage for more information.

We also have a variety of do-it-yourself projects to learn more about the environment. Browse our online lessons and projects.

 

If you’re a teacher or learning coach:

  • Check out this framework for 4th through 6th grade classrooms, What are we throwing away? An NGSS aligned co-facilitated Food waste unit. Learn more about the unit.
  • Lesson and Action kits: We provide materials and resources for teachers to teach their students topics of sustainability and tools to take action. Reserve a kit for your classroom here. Details on what kits we offer are in the Lesson Kits tab below the photo on this page.
  • Professional development: We  help teachers and their students understand climate issues affecting Washington communities through various professional development opportunities. See our current offerings.

 

If you’re a custodian or food service staff:

We offer training to custodians on how to reduce the contamination of waste bins at your school and best management practices around waste reduction.

  • Provide signage that is clear, concise and universal
  • Assist with performing waste audits
  • Offer training to food service staff to reduce food waste and increase food recovery

Contact us to learn more at schools@re-sources.org

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Lesson Kits

Kits can be borrowed for one week at a time. A staff from RE Sources will drop the kits off before the date you choose and pick them back up one week later.

Reserve a Lesson or Action kit

Lesson kits

Create a Cloud in your Classroom (grades K-2)
After observing and creating models, students will be able to describe the water cycle and how much freshwater is available for human use. Afterward, students will come up with ideas on how people can conserve this precious resource.

The 4 R’s (grades K-2)
Students will learn how to prevent waste from going into landfills by learning about the 4 R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle, rot) and why it is important.

Fall Flooding and Summer Drought (grades 4-6)
Students participate in an activity where they learn about how and why the availability of freshwater changes with the seasons and how climate change is exacerbating it.

Non-point Source Pollution in our Watershed (grades 6-8)
Students will learn how non-point source pollution impacts the watershed using a watershed model, and come up with solutions and actions people can take to help reduce the impact pollutants have on the environment.

Build a Watershed (grades 6-8)
Students work together to build a watershed and will come up with solutions and actions people can take to help reduce the impact pollutants have on the environment.

Timeline of a Straw (grades 3-5)
Students will build a model of the steps it takes for a straw to reach the landfill. Through this, they will learn about the energy and resources that are used in the process and will come up with actions people can take to minimize the impact our waste has on the environment.

 

Action project kits

Classroom Waste Audit (grades K-3)
Students will learn about what types of things and how much waste they are throwing away in their classroom trash bins by performing a classroom waste audit.

How-To Bundle (grades K-5)
This is a bundle of instructions on various ways classrooms can reduce waste. It includes “How to Incorporate Good On One Side paper in the classroom,” “Start recycling crayons,” and more. Note: this is a bundle of instructions only, materials for projects are not included.

Re-Use Bundle (grades K-6)
Students will learn how they can turn items that they would normally throw away into new items. Note: this is a bundle of instructions only, materials for projects are not included.

Marking Storm Drains with Decals (grades 3-12)
Students take action to educate folks about stormwater pollution by installing decals near storm drains on or near their school grounds.

Cafeteria Waste Audit (grades 4-12)
Students will perform a cafeteria waste audit to learn more about what the students and staff at their school are throwing away at lunch.

Poster Making Bundle (grades K-12)
Students will learn how to create educational posters on reducing waste. Note: this is a bundle of instructions only, materials for creating posters are not included.

Litter Cleanup (stormwater emphasis) (grades K-12)
Students keep pollutants like litter out of the storm drains and out of our waterways by picking up litter on their school grounds.

Beach / Litter Cleanup (waste reduction emphasis) (grades K-12)
In an effort to reduce the amount of plastics and other litter that reaches the ocean and nearby waterways, students will participate in a litter clean-up of their school grounds or a beach clean-up.

Make your Own Paper (grades 1-12)
Students will take action to reduce paper waste by creating their own paper using scrap paper.