Eighth-Graders Lobby Senator’s Staff about Climate Change In early October four Steamboat Springs Middle School eighth-graders traveled to Washington D.C. to present information on climate change to the chief of staff and legislative aides to Senator Michael Bennet. The four avid alpine skiers and concerned students researched the effects of climate change and compiled graphs, photos and statistics. They asked Senator Bennet’s staff to consider supporting stronger climate change regulations. The students shared the negative impact of continued global warming on Colorado tourism year-round and the Steamboat Springs economy, receiving a positive reception from the senatorial staff. The students suggested a plan the senator could consider to support climate change initiatives including three specific suggestions: 1) send a strong delegation to Paris for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change; 2) support tax or other incentives for alternative energy including for wind and solar; and 3) support the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan. The earnest students presented a 10-minute PowerPoint presentation and talked with the senator’s staff for 45 minutes, said mom Robin Schepper. “We personally wanted to get through to our kids that being an American doesn’t mean just voting in elections. You have to voice your opinion about things you care about in order for American democracy to work,” Schepper said. While in D.C. the students and their moms received a private tour of the West Wing of the White House, visited several museums, toured the capital and watched a Washington Wizards basketball game.

New Outreach from Yampatika Educators at Yampatika are excited to announce a collaboration with local teachers to revitalize its Environmental Literary Program that is centered around local civics and human impacts on local animal habitats. Yampatika will pilot the updated program beginning January 2016. During three months this fall, Yampatika’s K-5 Environmental Literacy Program provided lessons to 362 students in 18 classrooms in kindergarten, third and fifth grades. With its ongoing lessons, the nonprofit that inspires environmental stewardship through education is projecting the highest student participation rate since the program began in 2009. Jake Castle, Yampatika’s coordinator for environmental literary, said recent interest has been strong in the Colorado Parks & Wildlife’s TENS program, or Teaching Environmental Science Naturally. “It’s really allowed us to work wildlife education into many different units that teachers in Routt Coun-ty are teaching,” Castle said. “It’s also been a great way for us to be more flexible to teachers’ specific program needs.” For questions, contact Castle at Jake@Yampatika.org or 871-9151.

Get Involved in Sustainable SchoolsStudent, staff, teacher, parent and community support and partnerships are always welcome at Sustainable Schools. The SS program hosts networking and sharing meetings and a Google page to share information, notices and ideas. To learn more, contact Sarah Jones at schools@yvsc.org or 970-871-9299 ext. 101.

Steamboat Springs Middle School students (from left) Cole Gedeon, Kyle Kagan, Marat Washburn and Benton Sherman traveled to Washington, D.C., in October to present information on climate change to the staff of Senator Michael Bennet.

Party Packs available for your school too. Contact Sustainable Schools for more info.

School Green Teams busy with learning, service Classroom parties at Soda Creek and Strawberry Park elementary schools can now come closer to “zero waste” with new reusable party packs. Special holiday events tend to generate a lot of waste, but thanks to funding from the YVEA Caring Consumers Fund and YVSC, both schools were able to purchase reusable party packs. Each set has durable plates, cups, bowls and silverware that can be washed and reused. Food scraps and paper napkins can go into the school’s compost bin. The zero waste party packs were a huge hit at Halloween and reduced party waste significantly, Green Team parent volunteers reported. To learn more about the folly of single-use tableware, watch the entertaining two-minute Greenpeace-produced video “The Story of a Spoon” on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg-E1FtjaxY.

Green Team Updates

The team brainstormed a number of sustainability themed pledges that different grade levels will take on one month at a time. For December, the focus is on mindful holidays, and students in 2nd and 3rd grade will pledge their ideas for repurposing and recyclable holiday gifts and what they can do to be more mindful this time of year. Other themes for the remainder of the school year will be focused around energy conservation and Earth Day.

Soroco High School -- The Soroco High Green Team recently built a mini greenhouse to house composting through the winter months, teacher sponsor Beth Faris reports. The students salvage scraps from the dis-trictwide kitchen operations and work them into the composting system. Students also built a bin to hold leaves that can be worked into the inside compost to use for spring flower beds and the school’s horticulture class.

Steamboat Springs Middle School -- The SSMS Green Team students are upcycling old newspapers to make gift bags to give away to teachers for the holidays to encourage everyone not to buy new gift paper. The team also sponsored a “zero waste” school dance where all materials were compostable, and students who brought a reusable water bottle with them received lemonade for half price. The team is observing a lot of growth in the school’s tower garden with pumpkins, tomatoes, basil, parsley and beans. The students also sponsored an after-school movie showing of a film from the Teton Gravity Research about how climate change could impact winter snow sports. Teacher sponsor Carly Ziegler said the team will work next spring to obtain and install wildlife-proof fencing on the school’s outdoor berry patch.

Strawberry Park Elementary -- Teachers at Strawberry Park are focusing on instructing on and exploring one environmental topic per trimester, Anna White reported. The Green Team creates a lesson for all classes to use where all kids can learn about the focus topic. The three topics include: waste reduction (three Rs), water use and energy. The goal is for 70 percent of all students to complete these lessons, engage in interactive lessons that promote clear understanding, and transfer the information to their lives. The Green Team has focused on reducing paper use by providing incentives for all staff to reuse one-sided paper, creating less waste overall, and continuing to perfect the school’s recycling and composting.

Emerald Mountain School fourth-grader Tinsley Moore helps with the Take Charge Challenge energy education program.

Emerald Mountain School -- In November the Green Team students at Emerald Mountain kicked off the winter Take Charge Challenge. Students divided into watch groups to oversee a room or area of the school and provide feedback to the appropriate adults with respect to responsible and conservative energy use. Teacher sponsor Cindy Ruzicka reported the watch groups are collecting weekly data for a graphing document that will provide a visual of each watch group’s progress.

Soda Creek Elementary -- This year the Soda Creek Green Team has been busy working on zero waste in the cafeteria and classrooms. The students continue to compost daily in the lunchroom with the help of PIC volunteers, and several class-rooms have compost containers too.