Link Library

Here you can find articles and resources that can inform and inspire action. GSA continually strives to provide our member schools with easy access to updated information to help implement energy-smart, sustainable solutions. Have a great link you think we should know about? Let us know!

Awards and Competitions

Green Heroes Grant Program. [Deadline: 2/18/2010] With assistance from Roots & Shoots, the Jane Goodall Institute's global environmental and humanitarian youth program, Green Works, the Clorox Company's line of natural cleaners, has announced the 2010 Green Heroes Grant Program. A $15,000 first prize and a $5,000 runner-up grant will be awarded in each of three categories: Youth Leader/Organization , Adult Leader/Organization, and School Organization. Programs in the School Organization category can receive grants to help further develop their projects along with a special educational experience from Roots & Shoots for their school.

Our Planet, Our Stuff, Our Choice Video Competition. [Deadline: 2/16/2010] The stuff you use every day affects your environment, your community, and your planet. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sponsoring a video competition to raise awareness of the connection between the environment and the "stuff" people use, consume, recycle, and throw away. We need your help in creating videos that will inspire community involvement, spread information and lead to action. Your passion, your creativity, and your ideas can make a difference.

DuPont Challenge Science Essay Competition. [Deadline: 1/31/2010] Provides students with the opportunity to write a 700 to 1,000-word essay discussing a scientific discovery, theory, event, or technological application that has captured their interest. Prizes include U.S. Savings Bonds and expense-paid trips to Kennedy Space Center and Walt Disney World Resort with a parent. The sponsoring teachers of the First, Second, and Third-place winners in each division will also receive an expenses-paid trip with their student to the Walt Disney World Resort and the Kennedy Space Center in Spring 2010. And the teachers of the first-place winners in each division also receive an expenses-paid trip to the 2010 NSTA National Conference on Science Education in Philadelphia.

American Museum of Natural History Young Naturalist Awards. [Essays can be mailed between 12/1/2009 and 3/2/2010] The Young Naturalist Awards program invites students to plan and conduct a scientific investigation, one that will include questions, hypotheses, and trips into the field to gather data. You are not expected to make a new scientific discovery. However, your investigation should provide you with a new understanding about your question. Tell us about your investigation in an essay that includes artwork and/or photographs that help illustrate your findings.

Toshiba/NSTA Exploravision Awards. [Entry Deadline: 2/2/2010] Students create a website about a proposed technological solution to a problem. Materials for teachers are well organized on the ExploraVision website

Making a Difference (Carnegie Council Student Competition). [Deadline: 12/31/2009] Contestants may submit an essay of 1,000-1,500 words or a short YouTube clip on one of five "global ethics corner" topics: Oceans, Garbage, and Food, Climate Protectionism and Competitiveness, Who Pays for Global Warming?, Forest Preservation, and Ecological Intervention.

Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge. [Deadline: 1/31/2010] Student teams of 2-3 conduct research to learn about the issues that affect their community and select one issue that they truly want to impact, develop a problem statement that explains why and how it is a problem in their community, then propose a feasible, measurable solution to positively impact their issue and an action plan to carry it out.

Student Conservation Association's Green Your School Contest. SCA's Green Your School Contest is a national competition to stimulate and/or identify conservation service projects designed by high school students that improve or restore or beautify or conserve their high school environment. To be eligible, projects must have been started after August 1st, 2008. The Contest submission phase begins on April 1, 2009, and will end at 11:59 pm ET October 9, 2009. Winners will be announced on or around November 15, 2009.

2008 CEFPI School of the Future Design Competition. Council of Educational Facility Planners (CEFPI) presents the School of the Future Design Competition. Competition illustrates the kind of creativity that students bring to the planning and design process.

Junior Solar Sprint. A model solar car competition for Middle School kids.

Organic School Garden Awards Competition. School students nationwide, grades K through 12, are invited to enter this Organic School Garden Awards competition. If you're a kid who loves working in your organic school garden to improve your health and the health of the earth, this contest is for you!

ElectroCity. ElectroCity is an online computer game that lets players manage their own virtual towns and cities. It’s great fun to play and also teaches players all about energy, sustainability and environmental management in New Zealand. You can play too and make your own city!

Igniting Creative Energy (ICE). A national student challenge to motivate learning, ignite the imagination, and fuel the creative potential in youth.

Solar Schools. Working toward the installation of a PhotoVoltaic system in your school. Here you will be able to read about what others are doing and tell us about your Solar School project too. Please join us in this exciting educational journey to transform our global energy future and to protect the environment!

Live Green Teacher Grants. The LIVE GREEN Teacher Grant program, a Discovery Education program presented by General Motors, challenges middle school teachers to develop innovative ideas for furthering environmental and energy sustainability.

Conferences

National Energy Conference for Educators.The NEED National Energy Conference for Educators is hosted each July to train teachers to incorporate energy programs into their classroom and extracurricular activities. In 2009, over 100 educators participated thanks to the sponsorship of many local, state, and national sponsors. This five-day program covers all aspects of energy education and offers three graduate credits to participating educators. The conference includes a one-day field experience, allowing educators an opportunity to learn about a variety of energy topics.

Bioneers. The Bioneers Conference is a leading-edge forum. At this premiere environmental conference, social and scientific innovators focus on solutions inspired by nature and human ingenuity.

EPA IAQ National Symposium. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hosts its annual Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Tools for Schools National Symposium in Washington, DC, to bring together past, present, and future leaders in protecting and improving IAQ in our nation's schools. The IAQ Tools for Schools Program is a nationwide initiative to help school officials assess, resolve, and prevent IAQ problems, and reduce exposure to asthma triggers in schools.