Youth and Educational Resources
Each program will consists of different projects and activities, but will have similar over-arching environmental themes.
- DEQ’s Michigan Environmental Education Curriculum Suppliment
On
this site you can find out more about our Environmental Education
Curriculum Project which seeks to provide middle school
students with the opportunity to learn more about Air Quality, Ecosystems
& Biodiversity, Land Use, Energy and Resources, and Water Quality.
For information on the development of the curriculum click on the
image. On this site you can READ more about the lessons and find
out current workshops. - Michigan Tech (MEECS web page)
Actual lessons from the MEECS curriculum can be downloaded from this site on water quality, ecosystems and biodiversity, and energy. Click here to download lessons.
- Alliance for the Great Lakes Curriculum
- Seagrant Fisheries Learning on the Web
The curriculums that are listed FIRST all focus on Michigan and the Great Lakes Ecology and our relationship with the Great Lakes State. The last few websites are not Great Lakes specific, but are exellent environmental educational resources.
Click here to go to MEECS site!
Great
Lakes in My World offers 80 indoor and outdoor activities for kindergarten through
eighth-grade students. At this site you can BUY (about $40) the lesson book and Great
Lakes creature cards; samples lessons available online To look at sample lessons and to buy the Great Lakes in My World activities book click here.
Fisheries Learning on the Web (FLOW) is a comprehensive
curriculum about the Great Lakes ecosystem. Lessons are geared
toward educators who teach upper elementary and middle school
students. Each lesson is aligned with national and state curriculum
standards for science and social studies and features a hands-on
classroom activity. On this site you can download actual lessons
on food web, water and fish.
To find out more about these lessons and DOWNLOAD actual classrom lessons click here!:
This year the YES council has scheduled at least one youth activity per month for the 2008-2009 school year. Each month has a different environmental theme to go along with the corresponding activity. Each activity is designed to build students knowledge and aptitude on a specific leadership skill and empower youth with knowledge about their community's environment and how it connects to the global environment. Youth are not required to attend every activity but it is encouraged.
1. January 2008 - Lansing Lobby Lunch
Students will select a current environmental bill and track it through the legislative process, then have the opportunity to discuss it with their legislator during our visit to Lansing. They will also be able to discuss other issues that are happening in their community, such as increased pollution, loss of wetlands, and asthma rates, leaving Lansing better equipped to tackle the problems facing their community.
2. February 2008 - Environmental Justice Dinner and Career Night
Youth will enjoy a nice dinner and learn first hand about environmental justice from nationally and locally prominent environmental justice leaders. At each table, youth will interact with and interview an environmental leader to learn about their career path, leadership contributions, and work experience.
3. March 2008- Field Trip: Rouge Factory Tour
Youth will learn about sustainable industry through the Ford Rouge Factory Tour, which includes a historic auto-related landmarks and behind-the-scenes of the Rouge complex; historic video footage of the Rouge; a virtual reality theatre experience; a walking tour of the factory's; living roof; and a walking tour above the actual final assembly area where Ford F-150s are made.
4. April 2008 - Earth Day: Detroit Native Gardens and Walpole Island - 2-Days
Youth will tour the Detroit Indian Health facilities, and learn the names and uses of Michigan native plants by viewing and working in their native plant gardens. The second day the youth will visit Walpole Island, where they will see the Walpole Island First People's initiative on Green Housing infrastructure, and participate in a negotiation role-play based on the actual case of Walpole Island, the EPA and chemical plants on Lake Erie.
5. May 2008 - Green Screen Youth Environmental Short Film Festival
EMEAC's environmental youth film festival showcases and inspires youth to voice their opinions by submitting short films and videos that highlight environmental issues in their community. ACCESS will work with a group of Arab American youth to develop a short film for entry into the festival, and host a showing of winning films at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn.
6. Summer 2008 - Environmental Career Fair
This event will be held in conjunction with partnering organizations, such as National Wildlife Federation to highlight fields in environmental science and environmental justice. An emphasis will be placed on professionals working in urban and as well as natural environments, exposure to women, minority and youth leaders in environmental fields.
7. September 13, 2008 - Adopt-A-Beach Belle Island Clean Up
EMEAC will once again team up with Clean Water Action (Oakland County) and Great Lakes Alliance for a Beach sweep on Belle Isle during the National Adopt-A-Beach day.
8. September 19 and 20, 2008 - Youth Environmental Leadership Training
50+ Youth from the Metro Detroit area will come together to learn about our youth program, discuss and learn how to be better environmental leaders. This year's topics will include Community Organizing 101, Arts and Activism, Community Mapping, and Civic Engagement.
9. September/October 2008 - Upland Hills Ropes Course and Energy Audit
In addition to providing an opportunity to interact with nature, the ropes course activity will help youth learn how to work together as a team and show them that one person doing their share can make a huge impact on others. Youth will tour the Upland Hills Ecological Awareness Center, learning how to conduct energy audits for their homes and homes in their communities. Students can receive community service credit from their school when they complete energy audits in their community or if they teach others to conduct their own audits.
10. October 2008 - Dearborn EJ Tour/Highland Park Water Tour
Youth will have the option to participate in one of two tours: one tour will visit parts of Detroit, Dearborn, and surrounding areas and discuss how pollution impacts communities of color; another group will visit Highland Park and meet with Michigan Welfare Rights to discuss the water shut-offs in Highland Park. A post-tour discussion with both groups will focus on environmental justice principles and conditions in the community.
11. November 2008- Food Project
Taking advantage of the many festival revolving around food during this holiday season, youth will research and track how their food makes it to the table, interviewing grocery store customers and owners, farmers, food distributions companies and food production companies. In this session, youth will also learn about the nutritional value of some of the foods that they consumer everyday.
12. January 2009 - Lansing Lobby Lunch
Students will select a current environmental bill and track it through the legislative process, then have the opportunity to discuss it with their legislator during our visit to Lansing. They will also be able to discuss other issues that are happening in their community, such as increased pollution, loss of wetlands, and asthma rates, leaving Lansing better equipped to tackle the problems facing their community.
- Internship program
We will match students with hands on field experience in science, environmental and public policy. Internships may include working with East Michigan Environmental Action Council, Sierra Club, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Raymond, Rosa Parks Institutions and many more.
- Exploring Science/Environmental Careers
Through our leadership training programs and career workshops students, especially women and minorities, will be encouraged to pursue careers in science and environmental science. During career development workshops students will have the opportunity to interact with professionals in the environmental field. EMEAC is working with Michigan Universities to help find scholarships for students that work with the YES council.
- Summer Research Project and Peer Developed Initiatives
Students will work with EMEAC's Community Organizer to conduct environmental health studies in their own communities to see how pollution has impacted their personal health, that of their neighbors and that of their community.
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