School Resources
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We have gathered some excellent resources for your classroom. Take a look at these valuable sites!

Are you an educator or parent volunteer

with a great idea for going green in the classroom? Share your thoughts with the rest of us! It's easy! Join in the conversation and we'll post your ideas on this site!

Or recommend your favorite online resources and we will share them with other educators.
Share your ideas HERE!

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Inform and Inspire through innovative science programs and publications.

Take a look at Sally Ride Science.com.

What Could Your Class Do In 5 Minutes a Day?
These Kids Have Some Good Ideas!

Has your class made a video of Green Ideas for schools and kids? Send us a link and we'll post it here!

Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool and the Indoor Air Quality Kit

The EPA has developed a unique software tool to help school districts evaluate and manage their school facilities for key environmental, safety and health issues. [Note: EPA is using the term "district" to broadly describe any institutional system for managing multiple schools, whether they are public, private, tribal, charter or some variation.]

The Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool is designed to be customized and used by district-level staff to conduct completely voluntary self-assessments of their school (and other) facilities and to track and manage information on environmental conditions school by school.

In addition to powerful software that can be used by districts to track any facility issues it chooses, EPA has also included critical elements of all of its regulatory and voluntary programs for schools, as well as web links to more detailed information.

Districts and others can download HealthySEATv2 at no cost from the EPA web site. HealthySEATv2 is meant to be loaded and used on district computers; once it is downloaded from the EPA web site, HealthySEATv2 is yours to customize and use as you see fit. There are no reporting requirements and no obligation to use the checklist EPA has provided.

In addition, HealthySEATv2 will help school districts:

• Collect the kind of school - and hazard - specific data necessary to make a compelling case for needed renovation, repair and maintenance dollars.

• Demonstrate to the community that your district is committed to the health and safety of children and staff.

The EPA also provides an Indoor Air Quality, Tools for Schools Action Kit . This kit shows schools how to carry out a practical plan to improve indoor air problems at little -or no- cost using straight forward activities and in-house staff.

The Kit provides best practices, industry guidelines, sample policies,and a sample Indoor Air Quality management plan.

The voluntary guidance can save schools time and money so that resources can be directed toward educating children. The IAQ TfS Action Kit is co-sponsored by the National Parent Teacher Association, National Education Association, Association of School Business Officials, American Federation of Teachers, and the American Lung Association.

The IAQ TfS Action Kit has many useful components to help schools and school districts design and implement their IAQ programs. These items include:

• a Fact Sheet on How to Implement the Kit District-Wide*,

• Road Map*,

• Coordinator's Guide,

• Reference Guide,

• IAQ Backgrounder,

• summary of the Awards Program,
• IAQ Problem Solving Wheel*,

• Managing Asthma in the School Environment*, and

• two videos*.

• The Kit also includes checklists and backgrounders designed for different school personnel to use to ensure a complete assessment of the school's IAQ.

PDF versions are available for most items, and schools can also download and modify the various checklists as MS Word documents.

Schools can identify problems by using the checklists and conducting building walkthroughs as demonstrated in the IAQ Tools for Schools Walkthrough Video: Four Schools Making A Difference.