Environmental Club at Burley Middle School
The planet has limited resources, and for this reason it is essential that humans start living more sustainably. Unless we make major changes in our behavior, as well as in perceptions of the natural world and its infinite resources, the environment could be irreversibly damaged. We believe that an important and relatively easy way to foster change is to target young people, particularly those of school age. The young can correct any environmentally detrimental behavior before they develop into bad habits. Furthermore, these students can then spread information about environmentalism to their family, friends, and surrounding community. It was with these ideas in mind that we decided to start an environmental club at Burley Middle School. The club was designed to meet weekly to discuss environmental issues and ways students can make an impact. While we initially led the club, we want the club to continue in our absence, and so three co-presidents were elected by the students to run the club next semester. So far the club has been very successful, with a total of six meetings and an average attendance of around 25 students. The co-presidents have successfully led the club, under our supervision, and we now feel that they should be equipped to continue meeting next year. While we have a teacher sponsor, his role is minimal, as we want the students to be taking initiative and teaching and learning from one another. We feel that a certain level of autonomy will help the students to understand their responsibility not only to the environment, but also to one another. Our main goals for this project were to have an average attendance of at least 20 students and to create a club that is educational and engaging that will sustain itself without our leadership. We also wanted students to begin thinking and planning projects that they can enact within their school and community to address sustainability. We feel that we have adequately achieved all of these goals.
Starting an Environmental Club at Burley Middle School, Burley Middle School, Albemarle County, University of Virginia, student engagement, Celeste Ansley, Kristen Mierzejewski
5139
portfolio_page-template-default,single,single-portfolio_page,postid-5139,single-format-standard,minimum-core-1.0.5,ajax_updown_fade,page_not_loaded

Environmental Club at Burley Middle School

MiddleSchoolEnvironmentalClub (click PDF)

Fall 2010

Team members: Celeste Ansley, Kristen Mierzejewski

The planet has limited resources, and for this reason it is essential that humans start living more sustainably. Unless we make major changes in our behavior, as well as in perceptions of the natural world and its infinite resources, the environment could be irreversibly damaged. We believe that an important and relatively easy way to foster change is to target young people, particularly those of school age. The young can correct any environmentally detrimental behavior before they develop into bad habits. Furthermore, these students can then spread information about environmentalism to their family, friends, and surrounding community.

It was with these ideas in mind that we decided to start an environmental club at Burley Middle School. The club was designed to meet weekly to discuss environmental issues and ways students can make an impact. While we initially led the club, we want the club to continue in our absence, and so three co-presidents were elected by the students to run the club next semester. So far the club has been very successful, with a total of six meetings and an average attendance of around 25 students. The co-presidents have successfully led the club, under our supervision, and we now feel that they should be equipped to continue meeting next year. While we have a teacher sponsor, his role is minimal, as we want the students to be taking initiative and teaching and learning from one another. We feel that a certain level of autonomy will help the students to understand their responsibility not only to the environment, but also to one another. Our main goals for this project were to have an average attendance of at least 20 students and to create a club that is educational and engaging that will sustain itself without our leadership. We also wanted students to begin thinking and planning projects that they can enact within their school and community to address sustainability. We feel that we have adequately achieved all of these goals.