We have much more to do and your continued support is needed now more than ever.
Collaboration is Key in Montana Eco-Schools
Here I am almost halfway through my AmeriCorps term as the Sustainability and Habitat Educator for the Northern Rockies, Prairies and Pacific Region, and I could not be more excited about the enthusiasm for environmental and outdoor education here in Montana. Through the National Wildlife Federations’s Eco-Schools USA program, schools in our region are discovering new and inspiring ways to connect their kids with the surrounding environment.
DeSmet School
Montana’s newest Eco-School, DeSmet School in Missoula, is utilizing the Schoolyard Habitats pathway to plan improvements to their school garden, with an end goal of developing a fully functioning outdoor classroom. Through a wonderful collaborative effort, a class at DeSmet School now has plans to work with staff at Home ReSource, a local nonprofit building materials reuse center, to build a table with seating for their outdoor classroom.
Clark Fork School
As Clark Fork School’s Eco-Action Team is focusing on the Water Sustainability pathway this year, I visited with their students in January to help create watershed-themed artwork for our event. We introduced first grade students to the term “watershed” and even helped them create a papier-mâché model of the local Rattlesnake Creek watershed.
The idea of a watershed may have gone straight over their heads, but they loved visualizing the geography of their neighborhood and working with the “gross oatmeal” or “gross meal”, as they referred to the papier-mâché.
A multitude of exciting projects are underway in Missoula’s Eco-Schools, and I have plans to bring our resources to even more schools in the spring. Eco-Schools is a great opportunity to provide students with unique and memorable experiences that foster environmental stewardship, develop practical skills, engage them in STEM topics, and connect them to nature. What’s not to love?
Get Involved
If you find yourself in Missoula on the evening of March 4th, stop by our Northern Rockies office to say hi and support your local schools. Maybe you’ll find that Eco-Schools is a great fit for your child’s school too!
Register Your School Think your school is the next rock star Eco-School? Register today!
About the Author: Juliet Slutzker is an AmeriCorps member serving with the National Wildlife Federation in their Missoula, MT office as the Sustainability and Habitat Educator. She is working on expanding the Eco-Schools USA program in Montana as well as certifying Missoula as Montana’s first Community Wildlife Habitat. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 2012 with a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and earned a Master’s degree in Biology in 2015 from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. In her free time, Juliet enjoys exploring the outdoors in her new home of Montana!