School Site Ecosystem Standards of Quality Rubric

Essential Questions: Location: Indoors How does the quality of my school site ecosystem score? What can we do to improve the quality of our school site? Objectives: Learners will: 1) use a rubric to better At a Glance: Learners inventory their school site for areas understand their school of good quality according the Garden Earth Naturalist site ecosystem. 2) classify/score their school standards and areas in need of improvement. site eco-services as “very good”, “okay” or “poor”. Background Information 3) determine what they can A rubric is a scoring guide used in subjective assessments. do to improve the wellbeing of their school It is a guideline for rating performance or quality. The key site. elements of a rubric are the descriptions for what quality is like at various levels (e.g., very good, okay, poor), and thus Skills: organization, a rubric can be used to cooperation, communication provide an idea of what to Supplies: aim for when planning a  rubric cards project for the first time or  space on wall, for improving an existing chalkboard or floor to plan. arrange cards  tape to hold cards in Getting Ready place (on wall)  masking tape or chalk to Stone Mountain Elementary Decide if learners will work mark the outline of the individually or in small rubric groups. Print and cut rubric cards (there are a total of 30 cards and two rubric cards per sheet). Draw or use tape to Subjects: science mark the outline of the rubric on the wall, chalkboard or Time: 15 minutes floor. Place the department name cards vertically along the left side of the rubric outline and the quality cards horizontally along the top of the outline.

Procedure: 1. Evenly distribute the remaining 30 cards to each learner or group of learners. 2. One at a time, ask each learner or group to read the description on their card and place it under the correct column heading and in the correct row in the rubric. Tape the cards when needed. 3. After all the cards are in place, review their placement. 4. Using the rubric on the next pages as a guide, discuss with learners the quality of their own school site.

Discussion/Assessment: How does your school site compare with the descriptions of the rubric cards? What can we do to improve our school site? How will we go about implementing these changes? What are some service learning projects we can plan and complete?

GEN Ecosystem Quality Rubric

STANDARDS FOR DEPARTMENT VERY GOOD  OKAY POOR  QUALITY Healthy flowering plants Some flowering plants; No flowering plants; throughout the year; no pesticide low use of pesticide high use of pesticide; use; hummingbird feeders; nothing to attract POLLINATION butterfly garden; bog garden; pollinators students educated about and active in their school site (GEN club) Rich, amended soil in garden Some garden areas with No garden areas; no areas; defined pathways to keep amended soil; mulch in mulch; no pathways foot traffic from compacting soil; garden areas (compaction); poor roof, parking lot and sidewalk drainage in areas near water runoff channeled by downspouts and SOIL grading to collection areas or concrete; parking on drain fields; mulch to keep water ground under trees in soil around plantings and in playgrounds; students educated about and active in their school site (GEN club) Trees and shrubs with berries, Flower garden; bird No gardens; few fruits and flowers throughout the feeder; low use of plantings; high use of year; bird/hummingbird feeders; herbicide and pesticide herbicide and pesticide flower gardens; vegetable/herb FOOD garden; no use of herbicide/pesticide; students educated about and active in their school site (GEN club) Lots of trees and shrubs; no Some trees; no idling No trees; no regulations idling zones near school; zone community emission regulations of nearby industries; classroom AIR logs of student/family car use; students educated about and active in their school site (GEN club) Porous pavement in parking Storm drains clearly No awareness of water areas; rain gardens near marked and students issues downspouts; cisterns for rain aware of direct impact of collections and use on planted polluted runoff on areas; buffer zones of wild bodies of water; students WATER plantings if close to body of aware of water cycle; water and storm drains; storm water treatment drains that go directly to rivers processes and methods clearly marked; classroom of water conservation surveys of water use; students educated about and active in their school site (GEN club)

Large amount of biodiversity in Some variety of plant Very little to no variety and around school site; gardens material providing food, of plant material and (butterfly, rock outcrop, bog); no shelter and nesting sites therefore animals; BIODIVERSITY use of herbicide and pesticide; for wildlife; low use of monoculture; high use students educated about and herbicide and pesticide of herbicide and active in their school site (GEN pesticide club) Designated walk/ride bikes to Talk of alternative No awareness of climate school days; trials of alternative sources/uses of energy; and connection to sources/uses of energy; awareness/study of human actions CLIMATE understanding of the effects our climate CONTROL actions have on climate; interest in global climate issues; students educated about and active in their school site (GEN club) Understanding of natural Teaching about High pesticide use; “no controls of pests with use of beneficial insects and bugs” attitude beneficial insects and by plant health; low to no promoting the health of plants; use of pesticide; some plants providing food for gardens attracting beneficial insects; no use of pollinators (promoting PEST AND pesticides (allowing beneficial an education of insects) DISEASE insects to survive and take care of pests naturally); mulch for CONTROL established plants; no idling zones around older trees; redirecting of standing water; students educated about and active in their school site (GEN club) Understanding that all Education of some of No awareness of aspects departments contribute to the different parts of nature and where whole ecosystem (An ecosystem (departments) of people fit into it is greater than the sum of its ecosystem parts); participation in activities that demonstrate the connection ECOSYSTEM of departments; gardens; clubs; events promoting awareness and action in school site environment; students educated about and active in their school site (GEN club) Groups; programs and events One group or one project No interest in school involving students and their to clean up and beautify site; environment or SERVICE parents in projects around school school grounds; a project community and in the community (school that is not continued LEARNING wide involvement); students educated about and active in their school site (GEN club)