PS 58 GREEN ROOF

ioby: A Big Idea that Funds Little Projects

2010-05-25T09:45:00.000-07:00

ioby: A Big Idea that Funds Little Projects

Eve Mosher's new project!

2010-01-20T20:00:00.000-08:00

Take a look at Seeding the City by Eve Mosher. She was a visiting artist at a PS 58 Earth Day!
http://seedingthecity.org/

"Green" grants for teachers and some sites with ideas

2009-10-05T05:05:00.000-07:00

www.kidsgrowgreener.com (Deborah Maier talks of her school garden in Yonkers)

Cornell University has "Agriculture in the Classroom" which offers grants and materials http://agout.cals.cornell.edu/aitc/about/index.htm

Teaching "green" concepts, $5000 grants to teachers (Staples Foundation and Nickelodeon)
www.neafoundation.org

" A Tree for "every Child" Grades 3-5 www.americanforests.org/kids/a_tree_for_every_child/.

Environmentally creative ideas for teachers
www.childrenoftheearth.org

Classroom environmental projects
www.teachingtips.com/blog/2008/06/23/50-ways-to-go-green-in-the-classroom/.

Ideas for an energy efficent classroom, the 2009 Bright Green Dream School Sustainability Challenge, a chance to win a $15000 classroom upgrade
www.greenovationnation.com

USPS Green Roof

2009-09-17T11:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome back!

2009-09-10T10:49:00.001-07:00

Thanks David for the image of the plans for the roof!

The Curriculum Team

2009-06-25T13:36:00.000-07:00

The Green Roof Curriculum Team are:

Science and health-

Keith Wynne and Diana Marsh

Literacy-

Sandi Weisel (gr 5) and Katie DelloStritto (GR 1)

Social Studies-

Michelle Lazar (GR 3)

Math-

Ivelisses Molina (GR 3) and Sophia Yarosh (GR 3)

Arts-

Megan Driscoll and Sarah James

Early Childhood-

Bethany Hatheway (Pre-K) and Olivia Jones (K)

Special Education/ Technology-

Barbara Ladd (4/5)

Energy efficiency in all NYC public schools

2009-06-24T06:34:00.000-07:00

From the Green Roof Team:

The mayor launched the energy efficiency program in April, 2009 and joined the Green Schools Alliance (see the announcement below). Ms Marsh went to a Professional Development last week and reported at the Green Roof meeting yesterday that she has found out how PS 58 can sign up for the energy program. This would allow us to track how much energy PS 58 consumes and how we can go about reducing it. The children would be able to see very clearly the effects of shutting down all the school computers, not using the aircon etc.

Energy Efficiency Benchmarked at All Public School Buildings

04/09/2009

New York City Becomes First Public School District in the Nation to Join the Green Schools Alliance

Chancellor Joel I. Klein and the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability, Rohit T. Aggarwala, today announced that the Department of Education (DOE) has taken a major step towards reducing energy consumption by City schools by analyzing the energy efficiency of the district’s 1,260 school buildings through a process called benchmarking. Benchmarking gives a detailed understanding of the efficiency of each building, and helps the Department of Education target efficiency efforts where they will have the greatest impact. The effort is part of the City’s overall efforts to achieve its PlaNYC target of reducing municipal government energy consumption and carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2017.

Chancellor Klein and Sustainability Director Aggarwala also announced that the Department of Education is the first public school district in the nation to join the Green Schools Alliance, a nonprofit initiative committed to promoting energy efficiency, resource conservation and environmental awareness and responsibility in schools. Through the Green Schools Alliance, schools share experiences and expertise to lower their energy consumption and carbon footprint. Schools Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm and Sustainability Director Aggarwala were joined at the DOE headquarters in the Tweed Courthouse in Manhattan by Division of School Facilities (DSF) Chief Executive John Shea, GSA Founder and President Peg Watson, Department of Citywide Administrative Services Commissioner Martha K. Hirst, School Construction Authority Vice President for Architecture and Engineering E. Bruce Barrett and representatives from community groups that support conservation.

“This project to benchmark our buildings represents our largest commitment yet to reduce energy consumption in our schools,” said Chancellor Klein. “As a result of this project, our schools will be more efficient—and our environment will be cleaner. This is important work for our City, and it’s a powerful lesson for our students about the importance of sustainability.”

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” said Rohit Aggarwala, director of the Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability. “The Department of Education’s benchmarking of 1,260 school buildings will enable us to make decisions as to which measures we should implement to reduce our City’s greenhouse gases and save money on our energy bills. It also demonstrates that benchmarking is an easy process that yields important information for any kind of building.”

Benchmarking is regarded as necessary because a building’s energy bills alone do not provide an understanding of the building’s efficiency. Benchmarking uses the total energy consumed in a building and adjusts for other factors – hours the building is occupied, total square footage, building type, and other factors – so that an owner or manager can understand whether high energy bills are really due to inefficiency. The Department of Education used the “Energy Star Portfolio Manager” online benchmarking tool, a widely-recognized standard created by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; the use of this tool is the first step in most professional energy audits and is a pre-requisite for the US Green Building Council’s LEED rating for existing buildings. The total process for the first 800 school buildings took a year and was accomplished by the Department of Education staff with the assistance from the Mayor’s Office, DCAS, the EPA, and the City University of New York’s Building Performance Laboratory. The program also is accessible to schools that are given passwords, allowing students to monitor energy usage on their own.

Forty-five private schools launched the Green Schools Alliance in October 2007 in response to Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Since then, the GSA’s membership has grown to more than 200 schools nationwide, which participate in myriad GSA programs that motivate and support school communities to make energy and climate a priority. GSA also offers on-line tools and resources to support schools at its Web site. The Department of Education is the first public school system in the nation to join the GSA, and will encourage its schools to participate in the GSA’s Green Schools NYC, an on-going school resource-sharing event and the Green Cup Challenge, an annual national, student-driven event that supports school-based efforts to measure and reduce electricity use. The Department of Education will also form a partnership with GSA to arrange internships for high school students who want to build skills in sustainability and energy conservation.

“The partnership between the City and the Green Schools Alliance represents our priority of making sustainability a mainstay in our schools,” said Schools Deputy Chancellor Grimm. “This new relationship will help our schools become more energy efficient.”

“We now have the tools to target effective energy saving measures in our schools,” said DSF Executive Director John Shea.

“It is appropriate and exciting that New York City, the city where the Green Schools Alliance (GSA) was first launched, has become the first public school district to join the GSA as Charter Members,” GSA Founder and President Peg Watson said. “The GSA was created ‘by schools for schools’ to share energy and sustainability best practices, generate momentum and maximize success.”

The New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services coordinates the City’s energy conservation efforts and provided energy usage data from school buildings for the benchmarking initiative. “I am thrilled to be working so closely with the Department of Education in this important effort to achieve energy savings,” said DCAS Commissioner Martha K. Hirst. “In the next two years, the DCAS Office of Energy Conservation will oversee projects in more than 50 schools that will reduce energy use by installing more efficient lighting. There’s no better way to show young people that there will be a greener, greater New York in their future.”

Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, Greenpoint

2009-06-17T13:47:00.000-07:00

From Keith. Worth a visit?

Launched by GoodeGreen and run by farmers Ben Flanner and Annie Novack,the 6,000-square-foot Eagle Street Rooftop Farm atop a former bagel factory in Greenpoint just began yielding its first crops: tomatoes, spring onions,and salad greens. Volunteers and droppers-by can purchase produce or attend gardening workshops most Sundays and Mondays, and the roof has also begun supplying local restaurants like Marlow & Sons with spring mixes for a "rooftop salad." Expect regular "farm stand" hours soon, along with workshops on pickling and green roof issues. Get in touch directly for questions and to lend a hand, at rooftopfarmer@gmail.com.

Green Schools Alliance

2009-06-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

Heard about this organization at last night's meeting with Brooklyn Schools green committees. The minutes of the meeting will follow.

Green Roof News

2009-06-12T10:11:00.000-07:00

Follow this link:
http://www.earthpledge.org/presssearch.php?initiative=gr

Aquarium Project: 5th grade

2009-06-11T06:43:00.000-07:00

Working with Mr Wynne, PS 58 parent, Randy Donowitz from Pratt Institute and Manhattan Reefs, the 5th grade have created this beautiful aquarium.

Video for Earth Day by Dexter, 3rd grade

2009-06-11T05:29:00.000-07:00

Thanks Dexter!

Little Garden of Wonders

2009-06-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

Preparing the garden

Getting ready to plant.

Garden rocks!

Building the planters

PS 58 has long had a garden after school program and extended day enrichment program making school planters run by Ms Marsh, Ms Driscoll and parent Polly Dejarlais.

Little Grass Roots mentioned.

2009-06-09T06:52:00.000-07:00

Little Grass Roots, our environmental science blog, was mentioned on Scienceblogs, a famous science blog. Read what was said below:

March 27, 2007

"During the too-warm New York winter of 2007, a parent at Brooklyn's PS 58 started Little Grassroots as a place for children to blog about global warming. On it, the children of PS 58 are joined by kids from as far afield as France, the UK, and Singapore. Their contributions to the blog are lightly curated, but the children and their words really take center stage. (...)".

Read the whole post (March 27th) at:http://scienceblogs.com/seed/

Earth Day 2007

2009-06-09T06:34:00.000-07:00

First grade science projects.

Earth Day 2008

2009-06-05T06:45:00.000-07:00

Artist Eve Mosher visited on Earth Day and did a project, *Insert Here* with the 2nd grade. The children located spaces around the school that needed a 'remediation.'

Here are some of the spaces the children selected:

and some examples of the 'remediations':

Take a look at Eve's website on our LINKS.

Curriculum News

2009-06-03T07:33:00.001-07:00

Earth Day project
Photo by Ewan Dietsche 3-333

Extended day in the mornings with Ms Marsh and Ms Driscoll have done a number of interesting environmental projects including:
Books by 3rd grade on endangered species
Making planters for the school
They also organized a booth at our Earth Day that gave all the children the opportunity to say why they wanted a green roof, see and discuss types of plants that might go on the roof and the really fun bit-separate worms from compost!

Preparing the plants for the planters
Photos by Ewan Dietsche 3-333

Three Schools Install Green Roofs

2009-06-01T20:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.mbbarch.com/pdfs/UpOnTheRoof_SHSH.pdf

Green Roof Proposal Document

2009-06-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

The green roof team has discussed the next stage of the project. We think it would be to prepare a comprehensive planning document much like Adlai Stevenson High School did for their green roof. Here is a copy of it:

http://www.newvisions.org/schools/downloads/stevenson_proposal_020208.pdf

and their proposed roof:

Meet 'WeatherHawk'

2009-05-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

Meet WeatherHawk, PS 58's very own weather station and the first stage of the green roof project. The school applied for a grant from Children for Children (thanks Jayme!) and will now be able to monitor the micro-climate with this wireless weather station.

Here is a drawing by the children of their current work:

Green Roof Curriculum News

2009-05-28T08:31:00.001-07:00

Ms March has reached out to the PS 58 faculty across grades and disciplines to make curriculum a major part of the green roof package. The curriculum will include: science, math, literacy, art, movement and social studies. There are plans to begin a morning enrichment dedicated to the green roof in the fall.
Thanks to Ms Marsh for kicking this off!

Visit to a green roof.

2009-05-28T08:20:00.000-07:00

Members of the green roof team, Cathy Burns, David Briggs and Ms Marsh went with Marni Horowitz of Alive Projects to see a green roof on W4th street in Manhattan. They loved it!

Vision Statement

2009-05-26T21:41:00.000-07:00

PS 58 Green Roof

• PS58 is committed to providing a strong environmental education. The following programs and enrichment clusters are already in place:, Little Grassroots (http://littlegrassroots.blogspot.com), ‘The garden of wonder,’ The drip patrol, the Aquarium Project, and an after school/ early morning gardening program as well as our annual Earth Day Celebration which has been covered by the local media.The next logical step is to take 22,000 sqare feet of unused roof space and make a commitment to the future by building a green roof. A green roof will benefit the school financially by extending the life of our roof as well as eliminating extreme temperature fluctuations inside our building, allowing the use of less energy for heating and cooling. A Green roof will provide health benefits for the school and the neighboring community by filtering pollutants and CO2 out of the air and collecting airborne particles, and storing carbon. A Green Roof is a public space that can be enjoyed by everyone in the community of Carroll Gardens.

A Green roof will conserve energy in the future and become a Learning Lab today in sustainability providing a multiplicity of curriculum uses including Environmental Science, Art and English Language Arts and a weather station. Our green roof would recycle drain water and create its own energy in the form of solar panels which would in turn power the roof lighting.

Green Roof Educational Mission Statement
Students and teachers at PS 58 will work together designing, planning and building a green roof. Not only will teachers and students be able to enjoy the outdoor classroom, but the roof design process will promote a sense of service within the school community as well as outside into the general community and strengthen the already present commitment to sustainable living and environmental education at PS 58. Science and classroom teachers will use the space to plan and implement a garden and environment consisting of flora and fauna that is indigenous to the New York City area. Students will research the history of New York City in order to further their understanding of how urban development changes the natural environment. Our green roof will only consist of plants that are native to the New York City area and will attract an array of wildlife and birds to be studied. A native species garden will teach about seasonal change and will require little maintenance because the plants are located in their native environment. Building a native species roof garden is an interdisciplinary project that incorporates math, social studies, literacy, science and art. This project will meet city and state standards in education as well as LEED (Leed Environmental Education and Design) standards for green building. The incorporation of a greenhouse on the roof will allow students and teachers to observe and grow plants year round. We will grow various foods in the greenhouse, such as lettuce and tomatoes in order to provide the lunchroom with fresh produce. This promotes healthy eating as well as a better awareness of where our food comes from. The green roof will have meeting area and weather station to further enhance educational opportunities for classroom learning and exploration.