Overview
For this project, students will apply everything they have learned in their
time with WALC to accomplish something specific that future WALC
students can add to and improve upon so that they can all begin to leave
a tangible collective legacy at Balboa High School. Hopefully, in their time
with us, students have learned the value of environmental health and
social justice/environmental justice. Their final project is about improving
a system that has directly affected their daily lives: their school. A person
cannot go through this system passively without somehow shaping it.
How then can students apply the concepts of environmental health and
social justice to change, in some small, particular way, how the school
operates?
Human Cities Lesson 2
Environmental
Legacy
Project
By Conrad Benedicto
SUBJECTS
Service Learning
Environmental Studies
Objectives
Students will:
1. Develop a long-term plan for sustainable change in their school.
2. Conduct research to support their plan with data.
3. Develop a cost/benefit analysis of their project plan.
4. Create a presentation of their plan including persuasive methods to
convince others to put their plan intoaction.
5. Develop metrics to measure the impact of their plan based on their
original goals.
Materials and Resources
Community
& Sustainability
Basic academic supplies
Research resources
Notebook
Poster board
Possibly testing kits for measuring air pollution and water purity
Other materials as needed
Physical
Environment
Setting
School campus
Time Needed
Full school year
Glossary Terms:
Legacy
Sustainable
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Water
Background Information
Students form groups that will try to initiate a small, specific change in the way our school works that
moves it forward in one of the areas identified below. Past ideas have included starting an organic
garden, improving the school’s recycling program, taking classrooms off the energy grid, getting the
school to use recycled paper, putting air dryers in the bathrooms, eliminating pesticide use in the
school’s grounds-keeping, putting native plants in our open space and contracting an organic farm
to provide the food in the cafeteria. The possibilities are endless.
For this project we have established the following ongoing initiatives — broad areas of interest
under which students can make changes in their school according to the principles of environmental
health and social justice:
1. Sustainability and Self-Sufficiency — How efficient or eco-friendly is our school in its use of
resources? In what ways can we begin to limit and eventually eliminate the tremendous
amounts of waste our school creates, whether it is in the form of garbage, pollution or
energy? How can we help our school begin to produce some of the resources it needs to
function, like the energy we use for our appliances or the food we eat in the cafeteria?
2. Environmental Safety — How does social/economic inequality affect the quality of life at
our school? Is our environment healthy and free from toxins? What sorts of chemicals or
pollutants might we be exposed to that are potentially harmful to our health? Are there
alternatives we can use?
Urban Relevance
Lacking an immediate “natural” environment, urban students are often faced with a disconnect
for sustainability. However, the school itself provides a perfect opportunity to put a sustainability
plan into action. By doing so, students can replicate on a smaller scale the steps that their city
government may take when looking to put into action a sustainability plan that improves the
environmental health of the city and its residents (human and nonhuman). Students must weigh
the cost/benefit of their plan, think about its long-term need and whether it can be carried out when
they are gone. Students must also convince others of its viability and necessity. In this way, they
are very much playing the role of green city planner. This project not only provides students with a
great opportunity to have a positive impact on their school community, but it also prepares them
well to think about pursuing a career in green urban design.
Procedure
Introductory Lesson
Before starting the project, plan a lesson (or half a lesson depending on time) in which you introduce
students to what it means to leave a legacy. The objective here is for students to realize that the
work they are about to undertake will lead to systems being put into place at their school that will
still be there long after they leave. There is great power in this realization, as it instills a tremendous
amount of pride and sense of community.
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1. Lead students through a discussion of what “legacy” means (The word has several definitions,
but in this context you are thinking of it as something handed down from an ancestor or a
predecessor, or something from the past ).
2. Ask students to brainstorm about people in history who have left a legacy. Be sure to add that you can still be living to leave a legacy. Examples:
• “Jackie Robinson didn’t leave his legacy on the field.” Long after his playing career ended,
Robinson continued to fight against inequality. (Source: Doug Glanville, ESPN http://espn.
go.com/mlb/story/_/id/7812986/jackie-robinson-everlasting-legacy)
• “The idealism that John F. Kennedy evoked did not die with him…he left a legacy of
hope to millions of Americans.” (Source: American Experience http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/
americanexperience/features/general-article/jfk-legacy/?flavour=mobile)
• “Dizzy Gillespie left a legacy of musical excellence that embraced and fused all musical forms,
but particularly those forms with roots deep in Africa such as the music of Cuba, other Latin
American countries and the Caribbean.” (Source:
dizzygillespie.com).
4. Ask students to discuss and share why they think
leaving behind an environmental legacy at the school
is important. How can something they do today be a
positive change for years to come?
5. Explain to students the purpose of this project.
6. Have students brainstorm environmental legacy
project ideas in teams of three.
© Dan Strauss/The Nature Conservancy
3. Ask students to free-write in response to the following
questions. (Tell students that a person’s legacy does
not have to be something grand. Treating people with
dignity and respect can be a legacy. Volunteering in
your community can be a legacy.)
• What would you want your legacy to be when
you leave high school?
• What might your class’s legacy be at your school? What will you be remembered for?
• What do you think you might want your legacy
to be at the end of your life?
Damon Noe of The Nature Conservancy gives pointers to students
about how to undertake a sustainability project at Barack
Obama Green Charter High School.
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Questions to consider:
• How will this project benefit the school community?
• How will this project benefit the local (and larger) environment?
• Will this project save the school money? How?
• How is it sustainable?
• Is it logistically realistic?
*Once this brainstorming has been done at least once, students can look at projects from previous years for inspiration.
First Semester
1. Set a goal: Students will be divided into groups of four to five. Each group will choose a specific
goal or change that it wants to accomplish. Remember: Think small. You’re not trying to fix
everything; you’re just trying to do your small part or start something that future students can
build upon. Choose a goal that can be accomplished in the time you have. 25 points
2. Find facts: Students must compile data from the school about their subject. On average, how many
cans of soda do we recycle vs. throw away in a week? How much paper do we use? Where does our
food come from? What’s our energy bill each month? You must figure out what information you
need based on your subject, and you must doggedly find facts. You must also find more general
information that relates to the facts here at school, so you can provide a larger context for what
you discover here. 50 points
3. Develop an analysis and specific objective: Based on the facts gathered, students develop an
analysis for how this issue is impacting the school. What are the environmental and economic
consequences of this problem you want to address? Develop a specific solution or plan you want
to implement. Be specific about what you intend to do, and provide a cost/benefit analysis of
your project. You might have to think even smaller than your original goal. For example, if you
wanted to start a community garden, maybe your actual objective for this year is to simply get the
administration to approve a plan and designate a space for it. 50 points
4. Find more facts: What additional facts do you need to find to achieve your goal? If your project is
to start a composting program for the cafeteria, how does composting work? Who do you need to
talk to in order for this to happen? What are some potential problems? 50 points
5. Develop a presentation: Now students must put facts and analysis together into a presentation
designed to explain the change you want to implement, why and how it will benefit your school and
how it connects to the health quality of the society and environment in general. In this presentation,
you must be able to explain exactly what you would like to implement, how you would implement it,
what the cost/benefit analysis is and how the change can be sustained. 75 points
Second Semester
6. Exert pressure on the system: Whom do you need to convince in order to make this change happen?
Identify the individuals or groups that need to see your presentation and arrange to meet with and
present to all of them. This means that you’re conducting a campaign to educate the school and
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move it in the direction you want. You will be making flyers and PSA’s, contacting relevant agencies
and making arrangements to present more than once to different groups. 75 points
7. Implement: Once you’ve convinced the right people to agree to this change, then you need to
make it happen. This could simply be a matter of securing a contract with a new paper supplier to
be signed by the appropriate administrator, or explaining and establishing a protocol to make sure
our school does not consume any energy during holidays. Hopefully, all of you can see your work
actually change the school for the better. 75 points
8. Write a report. Your team must produce a report of your entire project — all the facts, analysis,
solutions and course of action you developed during the first semester, and a breakdown of the
campaign you conducted during the spring. This report must be thorough, 8 to 10 pages, doublespaced, 12-point font. You will present this report to next year’s seniors. 100 points
*Note to teacher: Be sure to set benchmarks and check-in points along the way. Be clear about what is
expected and have some specific questions ready to ask students along the way to help them think about
their project.
Also, be ready to talk about what happens if the project fails — because that possibility is truly real world!
Ask students how they would proceed through the year when they meet roadblocks.
Extension
What is the analogy of this project in the real world? How is this concept of leaving an
environmental legacy relevant beyond the school walls? Can this project extend to the local
community and beyond? How can students take what they have learned and begin a similar project
to leave an environmental legacy in their community? This question is important to think about
because as years pass, the ideas in the school may become limited. It also stimulates thinking about
the importance of citizenship and action.
Legacy project ideas:
Getting the school to 100% Recycling/Composting
Gardening
Non-flush urinals
Hand dryers
Classroom off the grid
Cafeteria food
Biodiversity
Groundwater
Toxics/Office supplies
Asbestos and lead
Assessment
Students must of course produce papers and notes that document each step. They will keep
everything in a binder, which will be turned in at the end of the project. There will be some flexibility
in grading since this is a real life exercise, and many times in real life, we are unable to accomplish
the change we seek.
Tell students: Do your best. Perhaps you will lay the foundation for the students who will come after
you, even if you don’t accomplish your specific objective this year. We are confident, however, that
if you work on this diligently and apply wisely all of the skills and concepts you have learned and
practiced, you will succeed and leave something specific that the school community will benefit
from henceforth: a legacy.
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S U B M I T T E D
B Y
T E AC H I N G TO L E R A N C E
Montgomery, Alabama
The Southern Poverty Law Center is a nonprofit civil
rights organization founded by civil rights lawyers
Morris Dees and Joseph Levin Jr. in 1971dedicated
to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice
for the most vulnerable members of society. Our
innovative Teaching Tolerance program produces
and distributes – free of charge – documentary films,
books, lesson plans and other materials that promote
tolerance and respect in our nation’s schools. We
are based in Montgomery, Ala., the birthplace of the
modern civil rights movement, and have offices in
Atlanta, New Orleans, Miami, Fla., and Jackson, Miss.
www.tolerance.org