Teaching Sustainable Practices: NWF Honors the NYC iSchool

Connecting kids with nature helps to further their personal and educational development. Studies have shown that exposure to environment-based education significantly increases student performance on tests of critical thinking skills, and spending time outside helps raise kids’ Vitamin D levels, which have numerous health benefits. In addition to health benefits, environmental education helps raise awareness of key issues that will impact our children’s futures. Schools that are a part of National Wildlife Federation’s Eco-Schools USA program are working to bring the benefits of environmental education to life. At the 2015 National Conservation Achievement Awards Gala on May 14, 2015, National Wildlife Federation will present the Education Award to an exemplary Eco-School, the NYC iSchool.

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In 2014, the NYC iSchool was recognized by National Wildlife Federation’s Eco-Schools USA program with the Green Flag award for conserving natural resources and integrating environmental education into the curriculum. Science teacher Peter Mulroy has designed and taught a series of nine-week intensive science modules incorporating eight of the ten Eco-Schools Pathways. In each of these modules, student groups collected data on the school’s environmental impact and used the data to propose and implement lasting positive changes to make the school a more sustainable place. Students completed such projects as creating wildlife habitat, building bird houses, and initiating energy conservation measures in the school. Learn more about the NYC iSchool’s sustainability practices at the National Conservation Achievement Awards Gala on May 14.

The NYC iSchool first opened in 2008 with 100 ninth grade students in an old school building in the SoHo area of Manhattan. In the last few years, the NYC iSchool has increased its environmental education under the leadership of Mr. Mulroy. As the school’s sustainability coordinator, Mr. Mulroy created curricula at the NYC iSchool in partnership with New York-based conservation groups such as Trees NY, the Lower East Side Ecology Center, and the NYC Audubon Society.

National Conservation Achievement Awards

Join NWF in honoring the NYC iSchool at the National Conservation Achievement Awards (now famously known as the Connies), on May 14, 2015 at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington D.C and meet the school’s outstanding conservation leader, Peter Mulroy.