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Lisa Lawson is an elementary teacher, who co-teaches gifted students in grades 2 through 5, with Diane Dunlap at Claywell Elementary in Tampa, Florida. Lisa attends many of our workshops at the USF Stavros Center. In fact, the project in her classroom originated from two of the Sustainability Superheroes workshops she attended recently. For example, Lisa used the “It's Broken Lesson” from the Design Thinking workshop. Students went for a walk around the school to identify a sustainability problem.   Next, they used the Question Formulation Technique from the Ask the Right Questions workshop.  The Question Formulation Technique (QFT) is an effective strategy to teach students how to ask their own questions. It was created by the Right Question Institute and is now used by over 250,000 educators to spark curiosity and engagement from students of all subjects and grade levels. So far, she has increased awareness of sustainability by doing the "What is Broken?" lesson. Lisa used the Question Formulation Technique to come up with lists of questions about problems the students found in the school and then categorized them. Each grade level chose a focus area based on their consolidated lists of questions.  The students created research questions and decided on a topic. Lisa described the students’ projects:
In addition, students participated in a number of activities. 1.) Students created posters.
  Fifth grade students created a poster discussing the solutions to the waste problems they saw in the school. These were the first steps in their research project. 2.) Students also created board games that used coding mice.
The students made their own game rules, and some students created cards that went with their games. The cards included sustainability facts or questions. After they created the games, they brought them to classrooms to play with other students.
Stay tuned to find out the results of greening the schools research!
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Everyone always hears about the sustainability facts that we all know and understand. These are not necessarily bad, however, why not take a different route to sharing sustainable information and practices? Memes are becoming the language of today’s younger generations. You can show these memes to students in your classroom as a fun way to learn and understand the importance of sustainability. You could even do a class activity and let your students create their own sustainability memes. One way you could this is by having your students create their own memes. Here are 15 hilarious sustainability memes created and submitted by teachers! If you would like to share a meme that you or your students created, or even something sustainable that you do in your classroom, share it with us! Message or tag us on our social platforms or email Deborah Kozdras dkozdras@usf.edu. 1. Ever seen someone throw plastic in the trash and couldn't help but cringe?  2. Kermit has us thinking twice about using our cars when we can walk or ride a bike instead.  3. Don't even think about throwing trash in the recycling bin.  4. Saving the planet is a great feeling no matter how big or small the contribution.  5. Yes, the cap does need to stay on!  6. How about we try to limit using single-use plastic?  7. Plastic bags are everywhere, but the good thing is we don't need them! Grocery shopping? BYOB! (Bring your own bag)  8. It's really that simple.  9. 1's and 2's are the most recyclable types of plastic.  10. You have a lot more supplies laying around your home than you think. Ever thought of using your trash? That can be repurposed for arts and crafts.  11. Plastic straws are about to be cancelled!  12. Feeling good is going green.  13. What we do to the planet comes right back to us.  14. Why are people even still using plastic straws?  15. Get to it! Don't forget to rinse our your bottles and leave those caps on.  To find out more about how you can bring sustainability to your classroom, check out our resources page where you can have access to lesson plans, activities, videos and more.
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AuthorsCreated by Deborah Kozdras, USF Stavros Center Archives
January 2022
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