Maryland Green Schools Celebrate at MAEOE’s Youth Summit
The Maryland Association for Environmental and Outdoor Education (MAEOE) honored the 136 schools that have successfully fulfilled the requirements of the Maryland Green Schools Program at the MAEOE Green Schools Youth Summit on May 30,2014 at beautiful Sandy Point State Park in Annapolis. The Youth Summit presents students and teachers with an opportunity to be recognized for their leadership in enacting significant change in their communities, while the Summit’s interactive sessions provide a platform for them to build upon the skills and knowledge that they have already acquired during the Maryland Green Schools certification process.
The Summit featured an awards ceremony to celebrate the accomplishments of the schools that were certified or recertified as Maryland Green Schools in 2014, as well as an “Environmental Literacy Fair” that offered students and teachers an opportunity to connect with organizations who can provide resources to draw from as they continue their work towards reducing the environmental impact of their school’s buildings and grounds and developing environmental literacy throughout the student body. Over 3,000 students and teachers were in attendance. Governor Martin O’Malley attended this year’s Summit. He applauded the work of all Maryland Green Schools and picked up a guitar and sang of the beauty of the Watershed with the students gathered there. Check out the Governor’s speech at last year’s summit!
The Maryland Green Schools Program (MDGS), an award winning program founded in 1999,envourages a student led approach to authentic learning and plays a key role in demonstrating how schools meet the Maryland State Department of Education’s environmental literacy standards. The program supports environmental literacy for students and acts as a catalyst for change within the community as envisioned in the Maryland Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights.
This year, MAEOE has certified 58 schools for the first time and has retained 76 schools through the program’s recertification process, bringing the total number of schools in the Maryland Green Schools Program to 466. This substantial growth in the program illustrates a persistent commitment to sustainability and environmental literacy in Maryland Schools. These schools have demonstrated and documented a continuous effort to integrate sustainable best management practices, environmental education curriculum, professional development opportunities, and community engagement into their daily operations.
Schools that were accepted into this year’s program combined to recycle over 1.2 million pounds of paper and 305,000 pounds of aluminum cans and glass bottles. Additionally, 69 schools conducted energy audits to identify ways in which they could reduce their energy consumption, among other projects. For a full listing of Maryland Green Schools and more statistics from this year’s Maryland Green Schools Program, please visit our Green Schools page.