Solid Waste Reduction
Compost Skit Spring 2013
In an effort to teach all of the students about the importance of separating our food waste from our trash, the middle school green club came up with a skit. The performed the skit for all of the students in Pre-K through 8th grade. This helped the whole school remember when they are sorting their lunch waste where everything belongs in a fun way for the students.
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Participated in Composting Case Study Fall 2011
In the fall of 2011, the Baltimore Office of Sustainability coordinated an initiative to pilot a food waste recycling (composting) program in select elementary and middle schools in the Baltimore City Public School system (BCPS). While initially eight schools were selected, only five schools (Midtown Academy, Curtis Bay Elementary/Middle School, Federal Hill Preparatory, Calvin Rodwell and Baltimore Montessori School) fully participated in the pilot, and produced positive results. The food waste hauler, Waste Neutral, worked with the schools to customize the separation and disposal process since the infrastructure and dining process varies between each school. This coordinated implementation went smoothly in most schools where there was strong buy in and participation from the principals, teachers, parent volunteers, janitorial and support staff, and students. The pilot schools began separating their food waste as part of their daily routine and as a result of this pilot; participating schools diverted 34,525 pounds of waste from landfills and incinerators to be recycled into compost.
In the late spring and early summer compost made from the food waste collected was delivered to participating schools, community gardens and urban farms. This gesture had a positive educational impact on the participants as a tangible example of the “fruits of their labor”. After seeing the compost; students, parents and faculty expressed a new understanding and appreciation of this waste being a recyclable resource.
In the late spring and early summer compost made from the food waste collected was delivered to participating schools, community gardens and urban farms. This gesture had a positive educational impact on the participants as a tangible example of the “fruits of their labor”. After seeing the compost; students, parents and faculty expressed a new understanding and appreciation of this waste being a recyclable resource.
composting_case_study_kl_edits.docx | |
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measurement_assignments_2012.pdf | |
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Green, Healthy, Smart Challenge Grant Recipient 4/2012
Our fifth grade class, took part in the Baltimore Office of Sustainability, Baltimore Community Foundation, Baltimore Energy Challenge, and Baltimore City Public Schools' City Schools Sustainability Challenge. The students did a study of the use of styrofoam trays in the school cafeteria. They used the log from the composting case study of the height of the trash in the large dumpster and did an estimate of how much less trash the school would generate if the cafeteria staff used compostable trays. The 5th grade students were very excited to learn their proposal was one of 54 schools applying and they won. The students researched different styles and sturdiness of compostable trays from 4 companies. They decided on World Centric's 5 Compartment Unbleached Wheatstraw Compostable Tray (http://worldcentric.org/biocompostables/trays/plant-fiber). The FHPS students continued to log the height of the trash in the dumpster. The decrease in trash levels exceeded their estimations. The very proud 5th class was able to present their study to the entire school on Tuesday June 5th.
challenge_award_2012.pdf | |
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sw_log_sheet.pdf | |
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sustainability_grant_20112012.pdf | |
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2012__sustainability__report_form_amy.doc | |
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fhps_challenge_2012.pdf | |
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Green, Healthy, Smart Challenge Grant Recipient 4/2013
Our fourth and fifth grade class, took part in the Baltimore Office of Sustainability, Baltimore Community Foundation, Baltimore Energy Challenge, and Baltimore City Public Schools' City Schools Sustainability Challenge. The students did a study to further reduce the amount of waste we are disposing of during lunch. Most of the students based on what they saw in the trash when lunch was over. We mostly have the plastic bags that contain a plastic straw, plastic spork and napkin. They also saw in the trash lots of ketchup packets. So we decided to propose in our grant that the purchase of a napkin dispenser ketchup dispenser and compostable sporks would be much more environmentally friendly. The 4th and 5th grade students were very excited to learn their proposal was accepted. Since we did all of the research last year on a good source of compostable products, we are going to order our compostable sporks from the same company, World Centric.
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ghsc2012-2013.pdf | |
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ghsc_2013_supplies.pdf | |
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ghsc_2013_report_form.pdf | |
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Recycling Team Every Thursday
5th Grade is our recycling team. Every Wednesday they are responsible to collect the recycle bins from each classroom and office and take them to the loading dock for pick up. They are also responsible for putting them back where they belong the next day.
Recycling Fundraiser
We collect ink cartridges, cell phones, laptops, and old jewlery to be recycles through EcoPhones Recycling Fundraisers.
Compost Bin Fundraiser Spring 2013
Last year at our Earth Day celebration we sold 21 compost bins to the community. We purchased the bins from EXACO trading company for $20 and sold them for $25. We used the $105 to buy more compostable trays for the cafeteria. We are also allowing these individuals to bring their food scraps from home to the school to add to our food scraps to be composted.
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Collect Cafeteria Reusables Every day
At lunchtime, we have a food-swap table which encourages the students not to throw away their unwanted lunch items. Students collect their milk, snacks, and fruit. Whatever is left over from lunch gets taken into the Pre-K/Kindergarten room for their next day snack time.
Collect Reusable Clothing Every Fall
We have a collection bin in our lobby where students and staff can bring their unwanted clothing items and school uniforms. These items are given to the needy families at our school at the principles discretion.
Water Conservation/ Water Pollution Prevention
Painted Storm Drain in our black top area with SLURPP 4/2012
We stenciled "Don't Dump, Chesapeake Bay Drainage" onto the storm drain on our outdoor area to show it eventually leads to the Inner Harbor. This will create awareness in our community when they come play in our playground.
Paint Storm Drains in our Surrounding Community 4/2013
Walter Saxon from the Federal Hill Neighborhood association together with Blue Water Baltimore will be coming to our school April 25th to celebrate Earth Day. One of the many activities they will be helping us with is painting storm drains in the neighborhood surrounding our school. Students and parents have identified 16 more drains in our community that need to be painted.
Rain Gardens
Our Green team has met with Ashley Traut of Blue Water Baltimore. He is putting together a proposal to manage 2 of our storm drains. By removing asphalt and planting gardens around our storm drains we will lower our impact of storm water runoff on watersheds and the Bay. The students will have a lesson on why we are doing this.
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fed_hill_prep_rg_concept_040213.pdf | |
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Rain Barrels 4/2013
The 4th grade students will be decorating 2 rain barrels to be used in our garden. We will collect the water to be used for our raised garden beds.
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Energy Conservation
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Baltimore Energy Challenge Grant 2015/16
Energy Challenge Project - Pssst…Spread the Word Green Club students wanted to increase awareness in our school community by designing an energy saving logo. We print T-shirts with this logo for the upper class student population. The students will be able to wear these T-shirts in school every Wednesday to remind them to save energy. We went to the Maryland Science Center to explore the Power Up exhibit. We are making a blog that will be posted on our website about saving energy and living more sustainable lives. We held Power Down Days that were advertised at our morning announcements and TV displays. |
Turn Off Lights Stickers 2012- present
Students in the 3rd, 4th and 5th grade green club made stickers with different sayings to turn off the lights. In addition to this Baltimore energy challenge brought stickers to place on all of the light switches. They walked around the whole school and either put energy challenge stickers or handmade notices on the lights. Each year we replace any of the stickers that are damaged or have fallen off.
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Morning Announcements
With the morning announcements that the students get picked to read an energy saving tip of the day!
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Use half lights in the classrooms
Teachers at FHPS use half of the lighting fixtures in their classrooms.
Website Creation to use less paper notification 9/2011
We changed our main form of communication from paper handouts to website postings that were sent directly to family's email address. www.federalhillprep.com
Xerox Reduction 9/2011
Announcements are sent home as paper handouts in addition to posting to our website for the families that do not have email. We print double-sided. We have a number of families at our school that have siblings. What we decided to do was to only send handout notifications home to the oldest sibling. We were able to save 91 sheets of paper per notification that we had to send home. Reducing the amount of energy used for the copier.
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Baltimore Energy Challenge Assembly 4/2013
Noreen Ahmed, member of Baltimore Energy Challenge will be coming to FHPS in April for an assembly with our 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students.
Habitat Restoration
Maryland Habitat and Memorial Garden at Federal Hill Preparatory 6/2012
FHPS won the Grand Prix Community Impact Grant. Two Federal Hill Prep children (and neighbors) have died over the past two years. With this grant we would like to honor them and to improve the aesthetics of the space on the side of the school, we have come up with a project that we believe can be completed in two phases. We see the funds coming from both the Federal Hill Neighborhood Association and the PTO from Federal Hill Prep. Ongoing upkeep could be done by the green/garden club at FHP.
To complete our proposed Maryland Habitat and Memorial Garden, we first need to remove the bushes that are currently in the space. The rest of the shrubbery was damaged and cut down after the blizzards 2 years ago, but several bushes remain--we received a bid at one time for about $300. Other expenses would include cultivating the space which is approximately 8 x 100 feet. Funds would also be needed to buy native Maryland plants such as sea grasses, black eyed Susan's, lilies, dog wood, red bud, laurel and rhododendron. We would like to have a landscape consultation as well so we can create a garden that is representative of Maryland habitat, similar to the gardens in front of the Aquarium. After the garden is established, we would like to remove the chain link fence that currently encloses that area and replace it with a lower barrier wall that would be more aesthetically pleasing, again similar to the one in front of the Aquarium. A sign or plaque titling the garden, its donors and its honorees could be posted on the brick wall of the school building or on the ground.
To complete our proposed Maryland Habitat and Memorial Garden, we first need to remove the bushes that are currently in the space. The rest of the shrubbery was damaged and cut down after the blizzards 2 years ago, but several bushes remain--we received a bid at one time for about $300. Other expenses would include cultivating the space which is approximately 8 x 100 feet. Funds would also be needed to buy native Maryland plants such as sea grasses, black eyed Susan's, lilies, dog wood, red bud, laurel and rhododendron. We would like to have a landscape consultation as well so we can create a garden that is representative of Maryland habitat, similar to the gardens in front of the Aquarium. After the garden is established, we would like to remove the chain link fence that currently encloses that area and replace it with a lower barrier wall that would be more aesthetically pleasing, again similar to the one in front of the Aquarium. A sign or plaque titling the garden, its donors and its honorees could be posted on the brick wall of the school building or on the ground.
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Structures for Environmental Learning
Revamp our Reading Garden 4/2013
Spring is in the air. FHPS is revamping their reading garden. Over the last year we have had a weed invasion. Students, faculty and parents are preparing for a major cleanup of our garden. We have a weeding clean-up scheduled for the second week in April. After which, we will get our raised beds ready for spring planting. We are working with Blue Water Baltimore to build a rain water diverter system to collect rain water for our garden. We are going to plant native trees and bushes, especially one that attract butterflies! We have yoga mats for the kids to sit on while they are out there having lessons. Can't wait to upload pictures of the finished product.
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Responsible Transportation
International Walk to School Day on Wednesday, October 3 2012
It isn't hard for our city kids to walk to school. Majority of our school already walks to school everyday but it was nice to have a day to celebrate it! We also had a bike rack installed at the entrance for all of our kids who ride their bikes and scooters.
Join us in celebrating International Walk to School Day on Wednesday, October 3.
DBFA, in partnership with the Baltimore City Department of Transportation, will join schools throughout Baltimore in celebrating International Walk to School Day this Wednesday, October 3.
Participating schools this year include Federal Hill Preparatory School, Francis Scott Key Elementary/Middle School, Hampstead Hill Academy, Margaret Brent Elementary/Middle School, Patterson Park Public Charter School, Thomas Johnson Elementary/Middle School, The New Century School and Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School. Walkers are expected to arrive at their respective schools between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m., and DBFA volunteers will be holding pep rallies at each location to recognize those who participated.
Walk to School Day events raise awareness of the need to create safer routes for walking and bicycling and emphasize the importance of issues such as increasing physical activity among children, pedestrian safety, traffic congestion, and concern for the environment. The events build connections between families, schools, and the broader community.
Join us in celebrating International Walk to School Day on Wednesday, October 3.
DBFA, in partnership with the Baltimore City Department of Transportation, will join schools throughout Baltimore in celebrating International Walk to School Day this Wednesday, October 3.
Participating schools this year include Federal Hill Preparatory School, Francis Scott Key Elementary/Middle School, Hampstead Hill Academy, Margaret Brent Elementary/Middle School, Patterson Park Public Charter School, Thomas Johnson Elementary/Middle School, The New Century School and Baltimore Montessori Public Charter School. Walkers are expected to arrive at their respective schools between 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m., and DBFA volunteers will be holding pep rallies at each location to recognize those who participated.
Walk to School Day events raise awareness of the need to create safer routes for walking and bicycling and emphasize the importance of issues such as increasing physical activity among children, pedestrian safety, traffic congestion, and concern for the environment. The events build connections between families, schools, and the broader community.
FHPS has a Bike Rack!
Most days are bike rack is filled with bikes and scooters. The warmer the weather the more riders we have.
Healthy School Environment
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Students build a living wall to reduce indoor air pollutants Spring 2014
In teaching our students to live a more sustainable lifestyle, we want to improve indoor air quality in our school. Asthma is a major problem in big cities with low income families. Poor indoor air quality can cause asthma attacks in persons with asthma and increased absenteeism among both students and staff. According to the EPA, indoor air pollutants can be two to five times higher than outdoor air pollutants, making indoor air one of the top five environmental health risks. We wanted to build a living wall at FHPS to improve our indoor air quality. Everyday our living wall will remind us about our commitment to a healthier life for school and our community. Since the 5th grade class would be responsible for the construction and maintenance of the wall, we wanted to use something that was easy to maintain. So with a little research we found a product called Florafelt. The felt is made from recycled plastic bottles and a nylon non-toxic plastic fiber. The roots grow into the Florafelt as the plants grow. The 5th grade students helped select which plants we were going to use based on a study we read about published by NASA. We discussed how plants convert CO2 into oxygen and how some plants even absorb toxic VOCs (volatile organic compounds), which have been shown to exasperate asthma symptoms. These VOCs are emitted by many different household products craft materials, cleaning products, copier inks, furnishings, and many others. These products can release organic compounds while you are using them, and to some degree while they are being stored. The students also needed to find plants that would grow well indoors. They narrowed it down to 11 different varieties. With a donation from Wheelabrator and a Sustainability Grant, from the Office of Sustainability, we were able to install our living wall. We were able to get the plants we needed from GreenFields Nursery at a discount. We enlisted the help of Baltimore City Master Gardener, Jenny Kaurinki to assist us with the actual planting of this project and Yindra Cottman-Dixon, a parent volunteer at FHPS. D'Ann Williams, DrPH, MS, Research Associate at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Department of Environmental Health Sciences Environmental Health Engineering came to our school to take measurements with our students of the particles in our air in rooms with and without indoor plants. The students were able to see a correlation in rooms with plants had less particles than rooms without. |
Recycled Flooring installed in our Early Education Areas 10/2012
Professionals in all facets of indoor air quality research agree that carpets should not be in schools. The concern isn’t only that new carpets emit fumes from a variety of chemicals.
Carpets, particularly older ones, can also harbor high levels of microbiological contamination. Ken Martinez, microbiological specialist with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, believes that while a decision about carpets should be made on a case-by-case basis, his “general” opinion” is that schools should not have carpets. A further concern about placing carpets in schools is that they can also become reservoirs for lead and pesticides; the contaminants are tracked onto the fiber from shoes and boots.
Our Pre-K and K carpets were replaced with Project Flor- Luxury Vinyl Plank. A thin vinyl that looks like wood and seems to provide more cushion to the steps than other tile. We are so happy to have our new flooring. Our floors were purchased from Allstate Flooring are are made of 75% recycled material. http://adorefloors.com/ProductLines/ProjectFlor/Planks.aspx
Carpets, particularly older ones, can also harbor high levels of microbiological contamination. Ken Martinez, microbiological specialist with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, believes that while a decision about carpets should be made on a case-by-case basis, his “general” opinion” is that schools should not have carpets. A further concern about placing carpets in schools is that they can also become reservoirs for lead and pesticides; the contaminants are tracked onto the fiber from shoes and boots.
Our Pre-K and K carpets were replaced with Project Flor- Luxury Vinyl Plank. A thin vinyl that looks like wood and seems to provide more cushion to the steps than other tile. We are so happy to have our new flooring. Our floors were purchased from Allstate Flooring are are made of 75% recycled material. http://adorefloors.com/ProductLines/ProjectFlor/Planks.aspx
New Playground Installed 3/2013
In order to implement a healthy exercise program for our older students, the PTO raised funds to have a new playground installed. The funds were raised at the prior years silent auction (4/2012). Some of the items included in the auction were made by the students in each class.
Green healthy Smart Challenge Grant 4/2014
sobovoice-june-july-2014.pdf | |
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