Students for Sustainability (SSS) is a student group at Strathmore High School (SHS) who share a passion for sustainability and a common goal of trying to achieve a Net-Zero school. This shared passion has created multiple learning opportunities for these students to engage with one another, their teachers, and experts in the community in finding creative solutions for schools to become more sustainable.

Engagement, Connections and Overcoming Challenges

Students within the SSS have realized...

Continuing on form Learning from the Land Part 1, Kandace sits down with Elder Darryl Breaker and Claire Wade. Darryl discusses his experiences with Claire's students and his journey as a young person and into adulthood and now as an Elder contributing and giving to others.

There are limitless learning opportunities outside the classroom walls.   One example can be found with a teacher and her students who can regularly be found out in nature along the Makhabn (Bow River in Blackfoot).  Cross-curricular connections weave naturally into this type of place-based programming including touching upon key learning objectives found in the Science, Social Studies, Math, Language Arts, Health, Physical Education, and Art curriculum. The curriculum comes to...

1. The “SPARK”

A move towards more authentic, powerful learning often times requires a “spark”, and in the case of the Net-Zero Sustainability project, the spark for teacher Mark Schweitzer and co-leader Leslie Larson came in 3 parts: 

• A presentation by Peter Gamwell, where educators were asked to think of their own story and what “extraordinary” thing they wanted to have happen in their classes. http://www.petergamwell.com/site/

• Mark’s...

Have you ever been completely immersed in a project that inspires, challenges, and keeps you constantly learning and engaged to accomplish your purpose?   In this series we will follow some orchestrated learning experiences that do this.  They are varied, but we will mention a few to give you the flavor. 

We will follow the work of students focused on a sustainability endeavor that includes, to begin with, a particular focus on net zero buildings.  We will spend time...