| Biologists |
to help teach children about
wildlife in the schoolyard |
| Bird-watchers |
to help familiarize children
with bird life attracted to the plantings. Interesting fact: Bird
watching has become a major industry in North America (Canada, the
United States and Mexico). It generates US $25 billion a year. It
employs over 60,000 people. It rivals the economies of the chemical
and steel industries. Bird watching depends upon the protection of
wildlands and wilderness habitat. It thrives and grows on the protection
of biodiversity. There is huge job-creation potential in environmentally-friendly
jobs such as bird watching. Visit the Audubon Society website at http://www.audubon.org/
|
| Ornithologists |
bird feeders, boxes and
baths and to learn more about their habits and needs |
| Botanists |
to help teach children about
plant life above and below the ground and to identify plants that
move into school grounds habitat through various methods of seed dispersal |
| Composting Experts |
to help children learn about
what happens to the food and yard waste they dispose of in worm and
outdoor composters, help manage the process and use the compost to
improve the soil; |
| Conservation |
people with conservation
expertise to help with the management of existing or newly-created
wildlife habitat |
| Designers |
to help children redesign
their grounds |
| Ecologists |
to assist schools in improving
the ecology of their grounds and learning about how to enhance local
biodiversity through grounds projects |
| Entomologists |
to assist with identifying
insects and creating insect habitat for class studies |
| Field Naturalist Clubs |
children often ask for after-school
nature programmes - field naturalist clubs may be willing to help
establish a nature club in your school and help with growing wildlife
habitat; |
| Farmers |
farmers can help by donating
materials such as trees and other plants, straw and well-rotted manure
to start building healthier soil, advise on soil, soil nutrition,
plant growth, etc. |
| First Nations |
to help children learn about
how native peoples value the natural world |
| Foresters |
foresters can give assistance
with choosing the right tree for the right site, explain how trees
are affected by different environmental conditions soils, and advise
on tree maintenance |
Garden Care:
weeding, watering, harvesting, etc. |
particularly during the
Summer vacation, school grounds plantings need maintenance such as
weeding and watering, and harvesting crops as they ripen to ensure
that the level of care sends a strong message to people in the community
about the importance of the grounds to the school |
| Gardeners |
gardening is one of the
fastest growing past times in Canada. In multi-cultural schools, there
are parents and older siblings with considerable agricultural expertise
who, since leaving their own countries, no longer have access to a
garden. They need to be approached in person and invited to help because
they are shy about volunteering |
| Geographers |
to help add some geography
to the political maps of Canada that some schools have painted on
the asphalt - children say there would prefer to see geographic features
and vegetation zones and their names, and the names of capital cities,
major rivers and lakes, glaciers, islands and mountains. |
| Herbalists |
to teach children about
how plants have been and are still used in all kinds of skin, hair
and medicinal preparations |
| Horticulturist |
to help with growing plants
and creating ideal conditions for them |
| Parks Planners |
people who work in municipal
parks departments are often willing to help with school projects and
can provide useful information on what resources are available in
the community |
| Hydrologists |
to assist in water management
and to advise on solving problems such as poor drainage |
| Landscape Architects |
to help with drawing up
the final plan for the grounds (should it be required by the school
board) after the school has completed the surveys and drafted their
own plans |
| Land Surveyors |
to help determine the best
location for projects |
| Meteorologists |
to help set up a weather
monitoring station so that children can learn to record and track
daily wind speed, wind direction, precipitation, the pH of rainwater
and snow, and seasonal weather patterns |
| Organic Growers |
to help develop organic
edible gardens to produce food for preparing at school |
| Outdoor Educators |
to help teachers integrate
outdoor spaces into the curriculum and cross traditional subject boundaries |
| Permaculture Designers |
to help plan and plant self-sustaining
plantings |
| Researchers |
people to help research
all aspects of project planning and development and schools that are
involved in similar grounds greening activities |
| Scientists |
to advise and help with
science activities in the school grounds |
| Soil Analysts |
to involve children in identifying
the pH of the soils in different locations in the school yard to help
select the right plants for the planting sites |
| Surveying Skills |
to assist with conducting
and organizing the initial school community and site surveys and to
help with comparing and analyzing data collected annually on, for
example, biodiversity, shade, and changes in student behaviour resulting
from greening the grounds |
| Accountants |
to track donations and other
revenues, expenses, receipts, etc. and reporting to funders |
| Celebrating |
people to help organize
ceremonies to celebrate school grounds projects and other special
school events held outdoors |
| Committee Work |
to organize and run the
school grounds greening committee |
| Computer Skills |
to help design a school
home page, track what other schools are doing through the internet,
enter and organize data, produce flyers and posters, etc. |
| Database work |
people for keeping records
of all aspects of project design, implementation and maintenance,
survey results, funding, events, photographic record of projects,
etc. |
| Fundraisers |
people to help the school
write project proposals and apply for funds and in-kind donations
is a very important (but not very popular) aspect of school grounds
greening - but some people actually enjoy fundraising! |
| Health and Safety Experts |
to give advice on the health
and safety aspects of projects |
| Journalists |
to help with writing articles
for school newsletters, community newspapers and accounts of the development
of the school's projects |
| Liaison |
to help communicate with
the media, neighbours, community volunteers, school board officials,
local government, potential funders, etc. |
| Members of Local Groups |
to spread the word about
what your school is doing to others to help gain more support in the
community |
| Networkers |
people to network with other
schools who are greening their grounds |
| Photographers |
to help keep a photographic
record of projects |
| Presenters |
for making presentations
to different sectors of the community such as community groups, local
businesses, government, school boards and potential funders |
| Public Relations |
for contacting people in
the community, funders, the media, etc. to keep people up-to-date
with school grounds development |
| Videotaping |
for recording different
stages of project development and celebrations and events on the grounds |
| Artists, Graphic Artists |
to help with designing flyers,
posters and plant tags and painting school grounds signs, murals,
paving markings, etc. |
| Carpenters |
to help with building planters,
seating, animal roosting boxes and feeders, sign posts, etc. |
| Ceramists |
to help children make, for
example, tiles and mosaics for murals and identification tags for
plants |
| Construction Workers |
to advise and to help in
other ways with all kinds of building projects |
| Costume-Makers |
people to help sew costumes
for music, drama, dance and games, and make cloth backdrops for outdoor
stages |
| Crafts Weavers, Dyers,
Spinners |
to advise on the kinds of
plants that can be grown for making crafts such as plant fibres for
weaving, basket-making, dyeing, spinning, paper-making, etc. and to
help with class activities |
| Masons |
to help the school design
and build well and learn about the different techniques used for pathways,
retaining walls, steps, etc., and to volunteer with building projects |
| Meditation, and Tai Chi
Teaching |
for helping to develop quiet
spaces - schools that have created green refuges for silence report
that it improves the learning ability of children to be taken for
a while to a calm place for time out - schools in Britain are using
Tai Chi to help reduce stress among students |
| Musicians, Dancers, Actors |
to help create outdoor spaces
for formal and informal performances |
| Mural painters |
to work with children on
designing murals to make the outdoor play spaces more colourful and
to help with painting murals, pavement markings, etc. |
| Signmakers |
for producing commemorative
and informational signage |
| Sculptors |
to assist with making projects
such as sundials, carved totem poles and sculptural bird feeders,
seating, pond designs, planters, etc. |
